Farecast tells you when to buy international airfare

Fare prediction website Farecast has finally gone international!

I’ve always found the site useful, but in a very limited way, since the times I’m most concerned with buying a fare at its cheapest is when I’m shelling out for expensive international airfare, not when I’m buying tickets for cheaper domestic travel. Farecast now has predictions for more than 200 markets from U.S. cities, including destinations in Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Canada.

If you aren’t familiar or haven’t used the site in a while, here’s a refresher: When you enter a departure and destination city and your dates, you’ll receive three results tabs. The first shows you actual airfares from different sources. Presumably, this is where Farecast makes its money, and that’s why this pane is the first one you see.

For the most useful information, however, skip on ahead to the Time Grid and Prediction & History Details results. The time grid shows you price variations depending on the flight times you choose, and can reveal a difference of hundreds of dollars. The Prediction tab is the site’s real standout though, since this is where you’ll find advice about whether you should buy now or wait. And that’s just the advice I’m looking for.