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  Airfare Booking Strategies

If the price for your ticket drops after you make your reservation, you may be able to save money by rebooking your tickets.

When this works

Most airfares are non-changeable and non-refundable, so it may seem impossible to take advantage of any price drops. That is mostly true.  However, there are still times where you have an opportunity to improve your pricing by rebooking.

• Southwest Airlines. You can always rebook Southwest airlines flights, if a lower flight becomes available. Refund webapge.
• Alaska Airlines. Alaska Airlines has discontinued its generous price drop policy. Price Guarantee webpage.

• JetBlue. Up until recently JetBlue allowed you to freely re-book tickets during the first 14 days, to take advantage of lower prices. However, their free re-booking window is now only 5 days. After the five days, you can still get rebooked, but with a $75 fee.
• United. According to View From The Wing, United lets you receive a credit for fare drops, during the first 30 days (minus a $50 processing fee); and it may be possible to have the fee waived, or extend the eligibility window.
• Elite status. One of the benefits of higher-level elite status with many airlines, is the ability to cancel or change flights with no penalty fees. If you have elite status, check the details with your airline. If you are entitled to this benefit, it is always worthwhile to track your ticket prices, and re-book if prices drop.
• Decreases that are larger than the change fees. If the price of your airplane tickets drops significantly, it may make sense to rebook, even if you need to pay a $75-200 rebooking fee. For example, if you purchased a $1,000 international airfare ticket, and the price drops to $700, you can still save $100, even if after accounting for a $200 change fee.
• Within the first 24 hours. For most flights that leaves from a US airport, and for many other flights booked on travel booking flights, you have a free 24 hour cancellation window. If you find a lower price, on the same or different flight, within the first 24 hours, you can book the new tickets, and cancel your existing reservation.

Tracking fare changes

The easiest way to track your fares is with a website called Yapta, it will alert you, if the price of your ticket drops enough to make a change worthwhile.

You should enter every Alaska reservation into Yapta, as well as expensive tickets from other airlines, so that you can take advantage of possible price drops. Because of Southwest's policies, Yapta can't track the prices of Southwest flights. It also isn't worthwhile to take the time to enter less expensive tickets, where the cancellation penalty will outweigh any potential price savings.

You can also easily set up a price alert for a specific flight search with Google Flights.

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