Yapta

Yapta is an extremely useful travel related website which also produces a browser plug-in which allows you to track the changing prices of flights. It also allows you to set up alerts so that you can find out when the prices drop below a certain level. The site is also set up to make it easy to get refunds from guaranteed lowest price carriers if required. The plug-in is known as Yapta Tagger, this is completely free and makes it possible to tag and track the prices of certain flights. If the price drops to the level that you have set then you will be emailed and alerted. Yapta will also continue to track the prices of the tickets even after you’ve purchased your ticket. This makes it possible for people to claim refunds from certain airlines. At the moment Yapta works with 10 domestic airlines, but as it works with Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz there is plenty of information. Yapta was founded in July 2007, and is based in Seattle. It’s raised a total of $5.7 million in funding from various sources. Competitors to the site include TV trip, Farecast, CheapFlights, and Trip Hub. The biggest difference with other similar price comparison flight search websites is that this one offers the ability to track prices so that you can purchase when they are at the cheapest level. It’s also possible to continue tracking the price of the flights even after you have purchased your flights. This makes it really easy to claim back costs if you brought when it was too high with some airlines which offer a cheapest flight guarantee. The application is fine to use, the only real gripe with it is that it does not currently support firefox. As this is a fairly popular browser it’s strange that it’s not supported. The browser plug in is very easy to download and install, it’s also really easy to set up your threshold price level so that you will get alerted should the price drop low enough. The system of planning a trip is very easy, all you need to do is enter the airports that you wish to fly to and from, and you can either enter city names, or enter the airport codes. There is an auto complete function like on leading carrier’s sites which will make sure you get the right airport. The calendar function in the plan site section is a little annoying because it takes so long to load and is also much bigger than it has to be. Creating an account doesn’t take very long, you need to enter your name and email address and then choose your password. You will be sent a confirmation email; you must read this message and click the links to activate your account. As soon as you have registered you are then able to start planning your trip. Using Yapta is free, it does have a number of adverts on the site however these aren’t really much of a problem and they don’t really get in the way. They may also earn commission from the airlines when they sell tickets. Although Yapta is in Beta it is pretty reliable and is used by many people to plan their holidays and get the best deal possible. It’s only really suitable for use by American citizens as although it can handle international trips it can’t handle different currencies, not to mention that the prices are very different when paying in different countries, even if you’re flying exactly the same routes.