Have you ever bought an airline ticket only to see the price fall later?
Few customers realize it, but many airlines will give refunds if they cut the price after you have bought a ticket. Alaska, JetBlue, Southwest, United and US Airways all offer vouchers for the full price difference — if the price drops $200, you can get a $200 coupon toward a future trip. Others offer vouchers, or cash, after deducting change fees (which can run up to $100).
In industry jargon, it is called a “rollover,” and in most cases it works only if you bought the ticket directly from the airline. (It generally won’t work if you bought the ticket on a Web site such as expedia.com or orbitz.com, unless the price drops in the first 24 hours.)
The rollover policies have been in place for decades, but until recently, it has been tough for consumers to figure out when their flight’s price has changed. And the catch is you have to call while the lower price is in effect to get your rollover.
That is where a new Web site, yapta.com, has come up with a clever idea.
Yapta, which was launched Tuesday, tracks fares on specific flights you select before or after you buy a ticket. That is an improvement over Web sites that track markets, but don’t allow you to specify which flights you really want.
You can use Yapta before you buy to alert you by e-mail to pricing changes on a particular trip, or let you know if the price drops after you’ve bought a ticket and you’re eligible for a refund. In order to obtain the voucher, you need to phone the airline directly. (You usually can’t snare one online.)
Ellen Siminoff, who signed up with Yapta to test the site before its launch, paid $800 each for four tickets from San Francisco to Kona, Hawaii. A few days later, she got notification from Yapta that the price had dropped to about $400 per ticket. She called United and got tickets reissued at the lower price plus four $400 vouchers.
Fares yo-yo based on ticket sales and airline expectations of demand, and the uncertainty and disparity frustrates fliers. Prices sometimes change several times during the day.
Farecast.com tries to predict whether prices will rise or fall in a market — it gives you a “buy” or “wait” recommendation. Another site, farecompare.com, offers historical information that can be useful in trying to decide if a fare may drop in the future.
If you are hoping for a round-trip between Washington, D.C., and Houston for $150, for example, Farecompare can tell you that in the past 12 months, Continental Airlines offered that only briefly in August last year.
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Ticket taker
Tom Romary, CEO and co-founder of Seattle-based yapta.com — and a former Chicago resident — walked RedEye through the site’s step-by-step process to getting a travel voucher or refund if the price of your plane ticket drops after you buy it.
— Redeye
– Log on to Yapta and get the “Yapta Tagger,” a software download that adds a toolbar to your Web browser. (For now, it’s available only for Internet Explorer.)
– Buy your plane ticket online from one of the 10 major U.S. airlines or Travelocity, Expedia or Orbitz. (If you’ve already bought the ticket, you can enter the confirmation code into Yapta to “tag” the flight.)
– “Tag” the flight when you’re confirming your purchase; a Yapta button should appear on your browser’s confirmation page. Yapta automatically checks ticket prices on your flight each day.
– Look for e-mail updates from Yapta, which will send an alert if the price of your ticket drops. The e-mail links back to Yapta, which tells you if you’re eligible to receive a travel voucher for a future flight or, in some cases, a refund.
– Call the airline and request the voucher. Yapta lists each airline’s refund policy on the site. Many offer vouchers worth the difference in ticket price, which can go toward your next flight purchase.
