How to search FareCompare for flights

FareCompare tracks what fares on a route have done over time. Use it to decide whether the price in front of you is good, not to buy the ticket.

What FareCompare is good at

• Historical pricing by route, which turns an abstract number into a judgement. Six hundred dollars is meaningless until you know the route usually runs at four.
• Fare alerts on specific routes, delivered by email.

What to watch for

It is not a complete search engine and should not be your only stop. Prices shown are indicative and the booking happens somewhere else.

Historical averages describe a route, not your dates. A route that averages four hundred dollars can still cost eight hundred over a holiday, and no amount of history changes that.

Use it like this

1. Look up your route and read the price history first, before you have searched anywhere else. It sets your expectation of what good looks like.
2. Set an alert on the route with a target price based on that history rather than on hope.
3. Go and book somewhere else. This is a research stop, not a booking one.

Verdict

Worth one visit before you book, to answer the only question a search engine cannot: is this actually a good price?

Common questions

Who owns FareCompare?

FareCompare is independently operated.

Does FareCompare sell tickets directly?

No. It publishes fares and alerts, and you book elsewhere.