Airfare pricing is incredibly complex, and even for experts it’s tough to know for sure whether the cost of a given flight will go up or down. Tiffany wrote a post a while ago about the best way to track airfare trends, but even that isn’t a sure bet for scoring the lowest airfare. Over the years I’ve started to just take the approach of booking airfare when it’s a fare I’m comfortable with — more often than not waiting seems to backfire.
Back in the day I remember that when the cost of a United flight decreased after ticketing, they’d issue you a voucher for the fare difference. However, they discontinued that policy many years ago.
There are still a few airlines that don’t charge change fees on tickets, which is basically the equivalent of offering a refund when the fare drops. For example, Southwest doesn’t have any change fees for all passengers. Furthermore, Alaska Mileage Plan MVP Gold members and JetBlue TrueBlue Mosaic members don’t pay any change fees on tickets (both revenue and award), so you can always lock in a ticket and then if the fare drops you can cancel (the ticket cost goes into your travel bank) and then rebook.
However, I just recently learned about another airline that will issue a refund to anyone when the fare drops.
Deals We Like shares that JetBlue will issue you a voucher if airfare drops within 14 days of when you book. In order to do this:
- This needs to be requested by phone, and not online
- This is only valid when the airfare has dropped in a way that doesn’t require the use of any promo codes; it has to be a publicly available fare (it’s fine if there’s a promotion, but that promotion just can’t require any promo codes)
- The “refund” will come in the form of a credit to your travel bank, which you can use for another JetBlue flight within 12 months
I wasn’t aware that JetBlue had this policy, so figured it was worth passing on. While it’s probably not worth checking airfare every day after booking to see if the price drops, I could see myself checking twice in hopes of ticket prices having gone down (maybe after a week, and then again just under a week later).
Has anyone requested a travel credit when a JetBlue fare dropped within 14 days?
I'm with Jeff. Mosaic is fantastic for the reason he mentions and also because Even More Space seats are super cheap with points (200 points vs. $40). And though B6 is often more expensive than the legacies in my markets, earning 15 points per $ (with B6 credit card) amounts to a discount of around 25% earning points that can ALWAYS be used.
Now if they could only hire their own employees at foreign airports instead of farming it out to morons, they'd be perfect.
Flew Mint last week from JFK to SFO. Seats 4A & 4F. Great enclosed suites, absolutely exceptional service from Mary Ann and Patrick. (Felt like we were flying on Singapore or ANA). Food was inventive but not particularly well executed. No issue with fare decrease, but flew to JFK on United. On that segment, the fare had dropped $55 per person. I called United and was on hold for about 10 minutes while the (polite)...
Flew Mint last week from JFK to SFO. Seats 4A & 4F. Great enclosed suites, absolutely exceptional service from Mary Ann and Patrick. (Felt like we were flying on Singapore or ANA). Food was inventive but not particularly well executed. No issue with fare decrease, but flew to JFK on United. On that segment, the fare had dropped $55 per person. I called United and was on hold for about 10 minutes while the (polite) agent checked on a fare refund. Finally, he came back and said that I could get the $55 refund (x2) but there would be a $75 pp change fee in order to get the $55 pp. The worst part is that he acted like I would consider that an option?
Kudos to JetBlue. Best transcon by far.
You are very behind on the times. B6 used to offer the travel bank credit for fare drops at any time, not just within 14 days in advance -- that changed about a couple of years ago. And as a prior poster mentioned, Mosaic has without a doubt the best elite benefit out there because I can cancel a ticket (for me and travel companions) at any time and get a full credit back. It...
You are very behind on the times. B6 used to offer the travel bank credit for fare drops at any time, not just within 14 days in advance -- that changed about a couple of years ago. And as a prior poster mentioned, Mosaic has without a doubt the best elite benefit out there because I can cancel a ticket (for me and travel companions) at any time and get a full credit back. It leads me to book them over legacies all the time when fares seem on the high side or my plans may be uncertain. That's presumably B6's goal with this benefit - brilliant.
Yapta is what I use. Automatically tells me when the price drops. And...for personal use, it is free!
This also works for award tickets! I did that a couple of months ago and saved myself 4000 points by calling up, having the points redeposited, and rebooking the flight all on the same phone call. As long as it's within 14 days you should be good!
In the paragraph where you speak about Alaska elites having no change fees, you should mention the same thing for JetBlue Mosaic members. They have no change fees. For people who fly mostly routes served by JetBlue, this feature is hands down the best elite benefit and makes it easy to pick B6 over DL, AA and UA.
Aren't you forgetting Southwest? They have the same policy too! For wanna get away prices it goes into a travel bank that has to be used within 12 months. For other fares the refund is done to the original form of payment, no?
@ GG -- Brain fart on my part, you're of course correct. Post updated. Thanks.
Technically, SW is the first one with the true no-strings policy, right? And for award tickets, it's even better because they'll refund your taxes to your card and credit points back to your account right away.
Alternatively, rather than checking the fare manually after purchasing your ticket why not simply search for the identical route via Google Flights and request an email alert when the fare changes?
Yes, very recently one of my one way fares dropped $20, I was aware of the policy and emailed JetBlue with the info.... Got a credit right away!
I should have done that! Once I booked a last minute ticket to JFK from Tampa and paid $500. Though a few hours later it dropped to $350.
I felt so bad after that.