What to do when flight prices drop?
 

I am not sure if there is anything that can be done, but I thought I'd seek the advice of more experienced travelers.

Of course, my story is that I bought tickets from EWR-TPA for thanksgiving on continental and the prices have now dropped by $100 a ticket.

The tickets are non-refundable and the CSR told me that I could get the credit for my flights for a future flight but pay a $100 change fee per ticket. That would negate the price decrease.

Are there any other options out there?

If you have etickets, just call the reservation center and tell them you think your fare has gone down. If the agent is experienced, he/she will know what to do and issue you e-vouchers for the fare difference and reissue your tickets in the new class and fare.

If you have paper tickets, still call reservations and they will set everything up for you. Then go to the airport or CTO (I prefer CTO), and they will issue e-vouchers and reissue new paper tickets for you. Be sure to bring your original tickets with you.

If someone insists that there is a change fee, say thanks and hang up, then call back and ask to do the downgrade (airline lingo for what you want), and you will most likely succeed.

Golden Rule of Airlines: If they say no, call back and ask again.

The very nice operative word here is "vouchers" as they translate directly to the total dollar difference in fares. If you ask for money back, you will get it but CO will charge the very onerous $100+ change fee for that privilege.

MisterNice

Hey... I got a voucher today. Its only $29 but hey, it spends.

This happened to me on CO and I went to the airport and got the same story as you.

Later I emailed a complaint (suggesting that I preferred the way DL had handled this by giving a voucher with no change fee). The email I received back indicated that I should have been issued a voucher with no change fee after all. (By then it was too late.)

Keep pursuing it!

THANK YOU FLYER TALKERS!!

I had no idea what a "downgrade" was and I thought I was going to have to eat the difference in price.

Called up continental, asked for a downgrade, and the CSR put it right through with no problem! Should be getting my vouchers soon.

Thanks again!

How long after the purchase do you have to do this? I purchased a ticket for $195 a few weeks ago, to find that it dropped to $145 the next day... I didn't know that I could do anything about it - is it too late?

Its too late the day the fares go back up again. You can ask for refund vouchers on the day that you see the prices have dropped.

After reading this thread, it's not clear whether you should be charged the $100 change fee or not. I have tickets for Thanksgiving, EWR-STT, and I just checked and found they had gone from $560 to $428. I called CO to get the flight credit issued and was told I would be charged the change fee and would end up with a $32 credit.

Should I call back and try to find someone willing to issue the entire amount? Or just take what they are willing to offer?

You will NOT be charged a change fee if you accept the difference in the form of a travel certificate.

You MAY be slapped with a reissue fee if you want the difference back in the original form of payment (CTOs and ATOs are more likely to waive the reissue fee than res. agents).

Fare class is the key to the change fee.

If you have V class tickets, and V class price has dropped, my experience is that there is no fee. But if you have V and the T class is a lower price, that requires a reissue of the ticket, thus the change fee.

I just downgraded a ticket for Christmas/New Year's to T class. The ATL CTO gave a chargeback to my CC without the $100 penalty. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif Even in a worst-case scenario, they would have been expected to give me a voucher for the fare difference w/o any reissue fees whatsoever...

I just called back and they are now mailing me the $140 travel voucher. Had I not read this thread I would have settled for the $40 originally offered.

Thank you all!

avek00 is 100% correct and vouchers are usually issued regardless of fare basis if ALL conditions of the new fare are met. And I do mean all.

MisterNice

I originally had purchased a ticket for Christmas for $356 in the "B" fare class. Today I noticed the fare on the website was $210. When I requested the difference in the form of a voucher, the rep indicated that I could only only get the reduced fare in the same fare class and could not go down to "Y" class. This resulted in a difference of only $43, which I reluctantly accepted.

Unfortunately, I did not check this thread before I called. Based on what I read here, it seems as if I might have been short changed.

1) Is the rep correct, or should I be able to downgrade to the "Y" fare class and get the full difference.

2) If so, can I go back and request the remaining $103 or am I out of gas since they already issued a voucher?

Thanks for your help.