Guy18

I'm flying Iberia to Europe in late March, and just went on Orbitz. I forget exactly what I paid, but it looks like my tickets are about $150 cheaper now. Is there anything that I can do?

rex

Call Orbitz. Call Iberia. Work enough extra hours to get an extra $150 back in your pocket.

Or all of the above.

Best wishes,

Rex

Intrepid1

Forget it....I don't know of any airline which will "refund the difference" if a fare goes down.


If you find one let us know. And think about this: would you like it if you bought a ticket and then the fare went <b>up</b> the airline charged you the additional amount????

P_M

In the good ole days of pre-9/11 it was possible to do a &quot;rollover&quot; where you could get either cash or a credit voucher for the difference. Of course this was only done on request. I know this because AA refunded me $380 for a price drop in June 2001. But since 9/11 I am told that few if any airlines are still doing this. Sorry.

Underhill

In the summer of 2004 we received a full credit-card refund of the difference between the amount we had paid for a September trip and the lower fare then available. The ticket was on American Airlines, and I was very impressed.

WillTravel

American Airlines refunds the difference, according to posters on this and other sites. If the business makes that choice to make that guarantee, obviously they have decided it makes good business sense for them.

Intrepid1

TTT because the information about American's refund policy is IMO important to know.

P_M

This is interesting, I didn't know that AA was still doing this.

leonberger

Last week, I was refunded the difference in price between I paid (BOS-LHR) on AA and the current price. It was only $30-something per ticket (4 tickets), but I'll take anything I can get!

Tickets are for May - June 2006, were purchased in September 2005, and the refund was given last week.

I did post this when it happened, which may be the thread that some of you saw.

Gayle

Guy18

First off, what is ttt?

Secondly, thanks for the info. It turns out that I actually paid much less than I remembered. I did call iberia, out of curiosity, and they said there's nothing they can do if it is lowered.

American's policy makes a lot of sense. I'm not sure why the airlines get away with their arbitrary system of lowering and raising fares when they feel like it. Seems like they should set the price at some point--a year out--and stick to it. If I did pay a lot for a ticket and then saw it go down before I even used it, I'd be pretty frustrated. That's very different than buying a washing machine which you start using the day of purchase. Doesn't seem to make good business sense.

WallyKringen

ttt = to the top (bouncing an older item back up to the top of the list - could be anything, XYZ - whatever - as long as there is a new reply)

WK

saltymuffin

Technically, they do &quot;fix&quot; the price of the ticket. Full fare prices only change about once a year. Sales come and go, just like they do in any other industry.

It is actually very good business sense for the airlines to offer different rates at different times. They charge more when there is high demand, or to people who don't care about price, or who want less restrictive fares, and less to bargain hunters who will prepay for non-refundable tickets.

111_op

I just remembered to check and saw that AA did indeed give me $20 for my ticket to Paris in January. Refunded to credit card.

I called when I saw the fare difference on the website.

Ticket was about $450.

My flight from Paris was delayed for 5 hours, and they e-mailed me that week to say that they've given me 10,000 extra miles.

suze

as I say everytime this question comes up (and it comes up often -lol) once i buy my plane ticket, i quit looking at prices
;-)

tcreath

I agree with Suze. My thought is that when you purchase your ticket you have to understand that it could go down just as easily as it could go up. When I plan my vacations I make a decision on how much I'm willing to pay for my ticket. If it drops to that price or below, I purchase it and then quite looking. Its the risk you take when you purchase airline tickets.

Tracy

Intrepid1

I suspect another reason fares rise and fall is that fares are tied to the amount of money the airline has to make on any particular flight to at least break even.

My understanding is the computer system constantly reassesses sales on every segment and if sales aren't as &quot;brisk&quot; as they might be the computer will lower the price to stimulate sales..

and then there is the routine practice of overbooking segments based on the historical percentage of folks who don't show up for a particular flight.

ira

Hi G,

If you have a nonrefundable, noncancellable, no changeable ticket, you're stuck with the agreed price.

However, many tickets are changeable (for a fee).

It never hurts to ask.

dona

When I have purchased a ticket on UA and the tix price goes down, UA has given me a UA voucher for the difference in price. Just got a UA refund voucher a few weeks ago.

FainaAgain

About a year or 2 ago, post 9/11 for sure, AA price went down, and all I got was a $40 voucher. I called and called, and nobody agreed to refund my credit card.

That voucher remained unused as I didn't find a flight cheap enough to use it.

Now, I heard, they even charge for issuing those vouchers!

rkkwan

It really depends on the airline and the specific fare code one's booked in. Some you can get vouchers, some refund to credit card, some you pay a fee to get a voucher; and on some fares nothing.

You need to call the airline. Or the agent you book your flights with, if any.