If I buy my ticket today, will a rival airline offer a better deal tomorrow? If I don't buy now, will the fare go up tomorrow - or even a half hour from now?

Now, the Internet offers a potential solution.

Farecast.com had its national debut in August and it immediately won accolades from Time magazine, travel guru Arthur Frommer, Business Week, Kiplinger's Personal Finance and Popular Science.

Farecast is, simply, a Web site that uses a massive database of historic data to predict whether the airfare on a certain route is going to rise or fall in the next three months.

While it's not foolproof, it's probably one of the best tools available to project trip-killing fare increases. Farecast Inc., the Seattle-based operator of the site, is confident enough in its projections that it is offering a product to protect against increases they fail to predict.

"We're putting our money where our mouth is," said Anne Taylor, a spokeswoman for Farecast.

While Taylor said it would be a misrepresentation to characterize the company's Fare Guard product as an insurance policy against fare increases - the company doesn't sell insurance - that's essentially what it is.

Farecast is set up to offer fare forecasts on 75 cities, including Las Vegas and Reno.

To use the Web site, plug in the planned date of travel, the originating city and the destination city. The site intuitively knows airport codes, so you can type LAS and RNO into the blanks.

The site searches for all the flight options from various Web sites, like Orbitz and Travelocity. Those generally include most of the airlines that fly the route sought.

Then, the site contrasts the prices found with historical data and an analysis of whether the fare is likely to go up or down between the current date and the date of travel. The airfare predictions shows if fares are rising or falling with a 90-day graph showing where fares have been to show travelers what kinds of fare volatility have occurred on the route.

The site also gives a recommendation on whether to buy now or wait. In buy-now scenarios, the site recommends purchasing directly from the airline to assure passengers of getting all the frequent-flier benefits offered and the site even lists if those special premiums exist.

If the suggestion is to wait, there's also a pitch to try Fare Guard. The service costs only $1 for now - it'll go up to $9 sometime next year. If you buy Fare Guard protection when the site suggests waiting “ and the fare actually goes up - the company will pay the difference between the old fare and the new fare.

As I said, Farecast.com isn't perfect and for a market like Las Vegas, there are additional weaknesses because McCarran is dominated by Southwest Airlines. Southwest guards its distribution network - you'll never find it on Orbitz or Travelocity. Fare comparisons aren't offered for Southwest on Farecast, but the site does show users when a Southwest flight is part of the comparative mix of possibilities.

Instead of listing the Southwest fare, the site suggests that users look at the Southwest Web site to comparison shop.

Mike Fridgen, vice president of marketing and product for Farecast.com, said the site has come a long way since the company started working on the model in 2003. Since the August launch, the site has received more than 1 million unique users.

"We're reaching out to the blogging community for suggestions and imput," Fridgen said. "We've gotten tremendous response and some validation."

Fridgen said on average, most couples traveling have saved an average $40 a trip when they wait to buy tickets. But probably more valuable, he said, is saving people from the anxiety of not knowing whether to buy or to wait.

The company makes money by accepting advertising on the site and Fare Guard also will be a revenue source.

Next on the Farecast.com agenda is more cities with airfare predictions, including some international destinations. The company also plans to expand into forecasting price increases on hotel reservations and car-rental deals.

In other news:

Singapore selection: The government of Singapore announced the selection of Malaysia-based Genting International as the developer of a second integrated casino resort at Sentosa Island. Genting joins Las Vegas Sands Corp. as the exclusive developers of casinos in the southeast Asian market.

Las Vegas Sands, of course, is a solid competitor in the Macau market and, as in Macau, will have a head start on Genting, which isn't expected to open its resort until 2010. The operators of the Venetian will use their tried-and-true convention model to attract visitors to its $3.6 billion project at the Singapore Marina area and open it in 2009.

Genting, which should have a loyal following since the company is well known in the region, partnered with Star Cruises on the bid and is building a Universal Studios theme park, a water park and an oceanarium.

Genting also will offer some entertainment that will seem familiar to those at the Venetian - a show in a 1,600-seat arena developed by members of the creative team that introduced Cirque du Soleil.

The Genting bid beat out Kerzner International Ltd.'s proposal to develop a futuristic version of Kerzner's famous Atlantis resort in the Bahamas that would have had the world's largest aquarium. It also topped a proposal from Eighth Wonder, a four-company partnership led by Las Vegas developer Mark Advent.

Advent was one of the conceivers of the New York-New York skyline at the corner of the Strip and Tropicana Avenue and he also has a plan for a San Francisco-themed resort that has been conceptualized, but never built.

The Eighth Wonder plan would have included a 10-story waterfall and a hollowed-out volcanic crater.

Holiday forecast: Eighty percent load factors will again be the rule this holiday travel season according to a forecast by the Air Transport Association.

Favorable weather nationwide produced one of the smoothest Thanksgiving travel seasons in recent memory and the ATA is expecting a 2.4 percent increase in the number of people flying this year over last year to 42 million passengers in the 21-day window that began Dec. 14 and continues through Jan. 3.

The association says the busiest day will be Dec. 21 with an expected 2.3 million passengers flying followed by 2.2 million on Dec. 22 and 26.

Code-share expansion: Korean Air, Las Vegas' new link to Asia via Seoul, South Korea, is expanding its code-share agreement with Northwest Airlines to help boost the number of connections to several North American cities, including Las Vegas.

Both airlines will sell their partner's flights, offer easier ticketing options and seamless arrangements on baggage under the agreement.

Northwest's connection between Los Angeles and Las Vegas will be highlighted and link passengers flying between Tokyo and Los Angeles.

Skywalk opening: The Hualapai Indian Tribe's new tourist attraction - a glass walkway that extends off a cliff at Grand Canyon West at Eagle Point - will open to the public on March 28, according to a press release from the tribe.

The Skywalk will be open from dusk to dawn and cost $25 per person to walk on the glass surface 4,000 feet above the canyon floor.

The critical process of sliding the glass platform out over the rim is scheduled to start Feb. 27 and take several days.

No word yet on who will take the first walk on the Skywalk.