One of the most frequently asked questions I get from friends and colleagues is, “What do I do if I purchase my tickets and the price of the ticket drops?” Michelle Higgins, Practical Traveler for The New York Times has some great tips in today’s Sunday Travel section, As Airfares Fall, Save Even After Buying.
For families, the price of paying too much for your airfare can really add up. Check out Michelle’s tips to help you get the best deal before your go. Each airline has its own policy and some charge re-booking fees for any changes to flights. Check out Yapta.com as a service that will do the heavy lifting for you, or you can review their handy reference to see if your airline charges a fee for re-booking and call your airline directly to ask for a refund.
A couple great tips from Michelle if you’ve already booked with a major online travel agency:
- Travelocity.com recently began offering automatic reimbursements to customers who book a vacation package on the site by May 31 if another customer books the same trip for less. And Priceline.com is offering a similar promotion for airline tickets and vacation packages booked on its site by June 1.
- Orbitz.com also offers a refund service called Orbitz Price Assurance for airline tickets, with refunds of $5 to $250 a traveler, if another Orbitz customer books the same ticket on the site for less.”