Does anyone have experience with Freebird?
It's been popping up a lot recently as a sponsored post in my Facebook feed. (Disclosure - I have nothing to do with the company). The basic premise is that it's an add on 3rd party service that you can buy on a per trip basis. If your flight is canceled, delayed by 4+ hours, or if you miss a connection, you use the app to rebook onto any available alternative.
Highlights from the FAQ at
https://www.getfreebird.com/faq:
- Price is currently $19 one way or $34 roundtrip.
- Can buy it up until 2 days before departure.
- Domestic US trips only.
- They pay for the new flight as a regular one way ticket. You do earn miles for it, and your original ticket remains valid for you to get a credit or refund if you want.
- If you don't use their service to rebook a covered flight, for example, if the flight that the airline auto-rebooked you onto is the one you want, then Freebird sends you a $100 gift card instead.
- They use "the same search engine as leading travel sites such as Kayak, Orbitz", so I'm thinking Southwest flights might not be an offered alternative.
To me, the pricing is high enough that I wouldn't want to be buying it for every trip. But used selectively, I can see some situations where there's value, like if my trip 3 days from now faces dire weather forecasts, or if I'm flying a carrier like Spirit or Southwest that doesn't have their own interline agreements.