Flight Buyer's Remorse

[shannonstar]

I finished purchasing my flights. And I did get a good deal. It's just that like a fool, I looked today and Delta had dropped their prices (which never happens). I could have saved $10/person.

I won't look again after today. I can handle $30 lost, but beyond that I think I would start freaking out.

I could have saved a little more by flying Air Tran, but we would have had to leave at 8am as opposed to 4:30pm.

Hopefully I will have enough self-restraint to stop looking. Now I just need to cancel all those fare alerts so they stop coming to my inbox and tempting me.

 

[Cameo]

The same thing happened to me on Delta. Actually, my tickets went down about $30 per person for four of us. Plus the tickets were almost $600 to begin with. It's crazy, but we live in North Dakota and Delta is our only option for flying to Fla. So, be happy that you hopefully aren't paying that much for tickets!!

 

[shannonstar]

I got very lucky on our arrival flight 101.30/person one way from Houston. The return is 216.60. My husband does not like to drive, so if we chose that route it would be all me. He said if I could keep it under $1000 to just book it.

I am so very sorry that your flights are so expensive. And here I thought mine was bad.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Airfares fluctuate from the time the dates are released for sale until the day of the flight. Airfares tend to go up as the cheaper categories of seats sell out. But as long as a fare class is available, its price can bounce up and down. Sometimes waiting can mean a lower fare. Other times, waiting can mean kicking yourself because the fare is always much higher than the fare you could have gotten.

It's an unrealistic expectation always to expect absolutely lowest price. It's like expecting always to be able to invest in a stock at the exact point when the stock price bottoms out and begins to climb.

The legacy carriers and most other carriers do not provide credits or refunds if the price on a discounted, nonrefundable ticket goes down after you buy it. Within 24 hours, you should be able to rebook. After that, rebooking normally requires a $150 change fee per ticket, so it's only worthwhile if the fare drops by more the $150 per ticket.

Southwest is a notable exception. You can rebook and receive credits with no change fee. Along with free checked bags, it's one of the big advantages of Southwest.

 

[shannonstar]

I completely agree Horace. I was really just teasing. I see lots of threads on here about people angry about wasting money.

I do wish I could have gotten Southwest both ways (no luggage fees). But other than that, I am ready to start saving/spending on MVMCP, Wishes Dessert Party, Universal Tickets, etc.

 

[sam_gordon]

Southwest is a notable exception. You can rebook and receive credits with no change fee. Along with free checked bags, it's one of the big advantages of Southwest.

There are caveats to SW though...
1) The credits need to be redeemed by one year of the ORIGINAL purchase date. So if you buy December airfare in June, and the price drops in November, you only have 7 months to use the credit.
2) The credits can only be used by the person named on the ticket. So if you buy 5 tickets, and get a credit of $50/ticket, you don't have a $250 credit, you have 5 $50 credits that only the original people can use.

That's not to say SW doesn't offer a good deal, but it's not perfect IMO.

 

[nervous1sttimer]

I bought our November Delta tickets in April, when gas prices were going through the roof. We thought they would only get more expensive and we definitely wanted these specific flights. We bought at $330/pp and the same flights are now $290/pp. Do I wish I could get that $160 back? Yes. Does it keep me up at night? Not as much as it would if I were worrying about losing the flight times we need.

 

[shannonstar]

That's the perfect description nervous1sttimer. I couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[bumbershoot]

I was really just teasing. I see lots of threads on here about people angry about wasting money.

For airline newbies...unless you've booked with Southwest, Airtran, JetBlue, or Alaska (everyone forgets about them!), OR unless you really really think your flight will go down in cost by OVER the change fee....don't check again!

 

[jmasgat]

Delta's policy is that fares are totally refundable until midnight following the day you purchased. If you bought tickets yesterday and they went down today you can call and get the difference back--no charge. You could even cancel the ticket--no penalty. This is for ALL tickets--even non-refundable. Most people don't seem to know this.

I have saved money this way before.

Maura

 

[focusondisney]

I finished purchasing my flights. And I did get a good deal. It's just that like a fool, I looked today and Delta had dropped their prices (which never happens). I could have saved $10/person.

I won't look again after today. I can handle $30 lost, but beyond that I think I would start freaking out.

I could have saved a little more by flying Air Tran, but we would have had to leave at 8am as opposed to 4:30pm.

Hopefully I will have enough self-restraint to stop looking. Now I just need to cancel all those fare alerts so they stop coming to my inbox and tempting me.

I know the feeling! We always fly SW or Jetblue, so we could get the credits. I will call for anything over $15 difference. Anything less than that, I don't. I just figure I'm contributing to the "health" of the airline industry!! And I only look at flights I really want: direct early down & later return flights. I don't care how low the price is on a 6 AM return flight....it's not happening for us. HAve a great vacation!!

 

[Collette]

So true to stop looking. But of course I can't! I'll make everyone feel better though. I didn't check too often after I bought, but one of the days I did my Delta flights dropped almost $100!! And for a short while thereafter fluctuated between $70 and $90 less. Luckily this was just one ticket for my solo trip.

I fly Delta from North Dakota, too. I watch flight prices even when I don't have a trip planned so that I know what I want to pay when the time comes. Over the years I have been fairly lucky choosing when to buy until this time. All last year the lowest I saw was $545 and otherwise never really dropped below $563. So that was the price I thought I could live with at the times I wanted to fly. I watched, saw it, was going to buy the next day and it was $583. I also was afraid of rising gas prices, and bought. Ugh! I'm still not over the day it dropped to $484, but I'm getting there

Specific flight times are very important to me, too, and my current flight times are now running well over what I paid. And I agree - 6 am flights just aren't happening for me either!!

 

[Hopefully]

I had the opposite experience with Delta. Based on history, I booked our desired, early morning, non-stop flights on Delta as soon as they were released. I paid about $249/person round trip. I had an alert yesterday from Travelocity for fall airfare sales. Long story short, that Delta flight is now $430/person.
I feel great.

 

[shannonstar]

I feel better now b/c all the flights are higher. There is still one Delta flight that is $10 less, but it's for 8am which I don't want.

I am happy with our flight time and resigned to the fact that I will still look often to see if I could have gotten a better deal. (Sigh)

 

[vacationclub]

Southwest is a notable exception. You can rebook and receive credits with no change fee. Along with free checked bags, it's one of the big advantages of Southwest.

So is Airtran. You can get credit of the price goes down, and must redeem those $$$ within a year on another flight purchase.