Decreasing cost of flights.

[Gracie09]

Yup, this is just the way it is with the legacy airlines. You pays your money and you takes your chance! I pride myself on getting the best fare I can and we usually fly with United to MCO but that doesn't always happen.

For our fall trip I watched fares like a hawk and decided what my "trigger" price would be. The fares stayed high for weeks and I feared that was what I was going to have to pay. We are very constrained on our travel dates so we couldn't fly on another day. So one day the fare dipped down a hundred dollars per ticket and I bought them. Sure as anything, the fares came down another hundred a few days after that but it was too late. Then one day, I was checking our reservation for changes and there at the bottom was an offer to upgrade to first class for only a couple hundred more. We often upgrade to Economy + seats because we have a long day's flying (8 hours travel time) to get to Disney, so I did the math and sure enough, we could get the first class upgrade for about the same cost as the E+ seats would cost and get priority boarding, meals, and free checked luggage in the bargain. So at the end of the day we got burned a bit with the higher fares but got first class tickets for about 500 dollars less than a first class regular fare.

If you really want to gamble, often you can get upgrades to first class 24 hours in advance for under $100. I've done it often on the MCO leg.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

This is true for every US airline - you can get a complete refund if you cancel your ticket within 24 hours of booking.

This is not the case for American Airlines.

The government rule is that an airline must allow passengers to cancel ticket purchases within 24 hours OR must allow reservations to be put on hold at the quoted fare for 24 hours. Most airlines offer first option.

American (AA) is an exception (there may be other exceptions, but none of the other large airlines). With American, you can put tickets on hold without spending a dime. Your reservations, including the pricing and seat assignments, are locked in for 24 hours. (AA.com will actually show until 11:59 p.m. Central Time the next day.)

Once you buy the AA tickets, all the rules apply about being nonrefundable and having a change fee. If you buy AA tickets right away without using AA's "hold" option, you do not not have 24 hours to cancel.

If you do not buy, the reservation cancels itself after the time runs out.

I like AA's 24-hour "hold" feature. I always use it. Recently, the ticket price was $30 lower the next morning. I cancelled the reservation that was on "hold" and put a new, lower-priced reservation on hold. Later that day, I completed the purchase.