Viguera
12-29-2008, 11:28 AM
I never thought I'd see the day...
Used to be that when you purchased a "non-refundable" ticket, it was pretty much final. If the price went down, you were screwed. Then online bookers like priceline, expedia and orbitz started their "price guarantee", where they would automatically refund the difference in price if the fares went down. Now the airlines themselves are doing it, with some conditions...
This all stems of course from the price of oil going down, as well as demand, which is forcing airfares to go down for a change.
Southwest actually has the easiest policy. If the price of the ticket goes down, they'll rebook you at a lower price, refund you the difference to your credit card and they won't charge you a fee.
Some of the other carriers will give you a travel voucher for the difference (which you can apply to a future ticket) or they might charge you a fee to rebook, which might make it worthwhile to just stick with the higher price.
Here's the breakdown:
Refund by credit card, without fee: Southwest
Refund by voucher, without fee: United, JetBlue, Alaska
Refund by voucher, with change fee: Continental, Delta, US, Airways, Northwest, American
No refunds: AirTran, Virgin America, Spirit, Frontier
Alaska Airlines actually has a pretty cool price guarantee. If you buy a ticket on their site and it goes down later - same flight on another site - you can call and get the price difference applied to your card and they give you a $50 voucher.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2008-12-25-airline-ticket-refund_N.htm
Used to be that when you purchased a "non-refundable" ticket, it was pretty much final. If the price went down, you were screwed. Then online bookers like priceline, expedia and orbitz started their "price guarantee", where they would automatically refund the difference in price if the fares went down. Now the airlines themselves are doing it, with some conditions...
This all stems of course from the price of oil going down, as well as demand, which is forcing airfares to go down for a change.
Southwest actually has the easiest policy. If the price of the ticket goes down, they'll rebook you at a lower price, refund you the difference to your credit card and they won't charge you a fee.
Some of the other carriers will give you a travel voucher for the difference (which you can apply to a future ticket) or they might charge you a fee to rebook, which might make it worthwhile to just stick with the higher price.
Here's the breakdown:
Refund by credit card, without fee: Southwest
Refund by voucher, without fee: United, JetBlue, Alaska
Refund by voucher, with change fee: Continental, Delta, US, Airways, Northwest, American
No refunds: AirTran, Virgin America, Spirit, Frontier
Alaska Airlines actually has a pretty cool price guarantee. If you buy a ticket on their site and it goes down later - same flight on another site - you can call and get the price difference applied to your card and they give you a $50 voucher.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2008-12-25-airline-ticket-refund_N.htm