Farecast rolls out Fare Guard: Insurance for plane tickets

Getting burned on airline ticket-price increases stinks. Today, the ticket-price guesstimating site Farecast (our initial Farecast coverage here) rolled out a new feature called Fare Guard. This $10-per-ticket service lets you lock down the lowest price provided by Farecast for seven days. If the price of the ticket goes up during that time, you can still purchase it at the original, locked price.

In essence Fare Guard is ticket-price travel insurance. Unfortunately, while the service covers any fare increases, it recompenses your expenses after the fact. That means you'll be waiting for a check in the mail from Farecast to make up the price differential. The service promises to have the check out to you within seven days, but it would be nice if it were simply taken off of the original purchase price.

Fare Guard is currently on sale for $3 per ticket until the end of the month.