Zeromus-X

I've never had a need to book refundable airfare, but (long story short) we accidentally purchased tickets to a concert across the country for nearly $2,000 per ticket and if they don't sell on Ticketmaster/StubHub, we want to at least attend the show that we paid $4,000 for. If they sell, I'd like to be able to cancel the ticket. Main Cabin tickets are coming up as cheap as $338 round-trip, but the cheapest Main Cabin Fully Flexible tickets are $2,225 round-trip.

I did a test booking for a trip tomorrow and it's $737 round trip to the same destination.

Is Fully Flexible always priced this way, and if so, why would AA price it so much higher than simply waiting until the last minute to book? Am I missing something here?

mvoight

It could be due to something on the day you are planning to go
What are the city pairs?
What is the day the tickets are 2,225? What is they day they are $737?
Are you offering the tickets at a discount or the same price you paid?
When is the concert?
What about other carriers?

spongenotbob

Zeromus-X

WN is probably what I'll end up booking, but I'd much prefer to get the AA miles if possible.

City pairs are PHX to NYC (JFK, LGA, EWR). Dates are October 5th through 8th. WN is more than AA by about $300, but still significantly cheaper than the refundable fares of course.

Concert is Phil Collins at Madison Square Garden. Hopeful to sell for face value but Ticketmaster values their Platinum tickets as an 'on demand' price so I'm not sure I'll pull it off. I'm okay selling at a slight loss, but any more than that I'd rather see the show from the front row.

platbrownguy

1. you don't need "fully flexible" in this case, the "flexible" K fares on this route ($1250-1370 rt) are fully refundable with no fee

2. you could buy the refundable K fares and, if you end up flying (and if the current walkup fares are lower), just buy the walkup fares and cancel the refundable tickets (or change them). you're only buying them as a hedge in case your preferred flights sell out.

3. there is plenty of saver award availability if you have 50k AA miles to burn. if you cancel, that's only $175 to redeposit ($150 + $25 for second pax), or $0 if one of you is EXP.

Zeromus-X

ijgordon

For most intents and purposes, especially on domestic flights, there’s no real difference. Internationally, “flexible” may have a fee for cancellation, whereas there’s no penalty on fully flexible. But I don’t think I’ve seen a cancellation fee on a domestic fare (yet). Also, i think fully flexible is typically a “Y” or “J” class fare, which I believe earn extra EQMs, but as you can see, those are probably not worth the additional cost.

In any event, read (and save!) the detailed fare rules before you purchase.

Of course another option Is to buy the non-refundable tickets and then just pay a change fee to use them on another itinerary if you decide not to go.

Superguy

I'll second reading and saving the fare rules. They'll also have the fare code in them. Sometimes it's easier for the agent to look up the fare code for the rules for booking for questions as they may not have them available. That's been handy more than once in my travels.

As for 7x difference, I'd say it depends. I've seen it sometimes less than 2x, and other times upward of 7x. It doesn't always make sense how the fares come out. Some of my more frequent travels had a NR ticket for BWI-SMF RT for around $550, with the refundable ticket coming in around $1100-1200. Then there was the BWI-SAV ticket that came in at around $300 NR and then $2100 for refundable. Going half the distance and mostly on RJs, yet there was a huge disparity. Go figure.

IME, the refundable fare price isn't going to change much from day to day. You can pretty much count on it being in that neighborhood, unless some sort of fare sale or fare hike is announced. Nice thing is that if you have to change your ticket, there will be little, if any, fare difference to pay.

And as you said, there's the NR and then pay any change fee. If it's not likely to change (much), this can be a good betIf it changes far out, there won't be much fare difference. Where this sucks is if a change is needed close in. Not only do you get the change fee but then a nasty price increase too.

It's really a gamble either way. I still think about that one time I had to change the ticket 6 times after I bought it (outside the 24 hour period). Really glad I had a refundable - change fees and fare differences would have really sucked.