I would be more worried that you paid almost $750 per ticket if I understood your comments correctly.

If you buy an airline ticket directly from the airline and the price later goes down (e.g., a month later or a half-year later) can you actually (and easily) get a refund for the price differential?

And can the same be done if you bought through an agent (such as Expedia)?

No refund normally (although I think there might be an airline that does this) but you can cancel, pay whatever penalty, and rebook, so you gain if the price drop is greater than the change fee.

Haha well you got your answers and met a couple losers in the meantime that had to chime in with negative idiotic comments. post the route and price, hopefully you'll get a few more people calling you a further idiot and a few people telling you the fare will drop and when...

good luck...

Thanks all for the input.

Yes, I'm a weenie for not checking things within the allotted 24 hour window. Oh well, live and learn; I'll adjust things and shorten our stay by a day. (Which may be a good thing -- less of our cash siphoned off by Disney... :p )

FYI, after all taxes and fees, the per ticket price was $590. So I stand corrected: the $150 change fee would be about 25% of the total.

And to Slawecki, no, I don't wave ALL fees, but if I'm worried about retaining happy clients (and my understanding is that UA could use the help in this area), I'd try to work with them, especially if we're dealing with a year lead time. But again, you and others are correct, it's my fault for not paying close enough attention.

Welcome to Flyertalk.

The fee is a fee, it's not a percent. Doesn't matter what the ticket cost, the fee is the same. Don't think of it as a percent based, it's a flat fee.

On AA, when you book a flight, you can choose your dates from a calendar (grid), that way entering dates in US form (mo/date/yr) or non-US (date/mo/year) would not be an issue--I seem to remember DL, NW had the same system.

October 2013 prices out at $391 R/T for the SFO-MCO-SFO nonstops on United metal - identical fare on every day in this general timeframe.

You could refare it right now and come out $50 per ticket ahead. As others have pointed out, you'd pay $150 to get the $200 credit to use on another itin. Fly somewhere else in the spring or summer or whatever.

SFO-MCO sometimes drops into the $250-300 R/T range for off-peak travel. A gamblin' man might go for it knowing that October seats will be part of a fare sale in the spring or summer, but I could certainly understand accepting $391 right now.

Hey i'm definately part of the bunch that thinks this guy should suffer, but stupid question, can you refare more than once? Never done it being an ft elite.

Oh, sure. You can refare as many times as you like.

Whatever fare rules you're under will apply each time you do it, of course. :) On a $590 ticket with a $150 change fee, it's probably only happening one time. In this case, OP gains the benefit of a small net gain (assuming he will use the residual credit) as well as changing his dates. But from his $391 ticket, it's unlikely to happen again...unless someone drops a $99-each-way fare sale on SFO-MCO. Even then, you'd have to ask whether $150 in right-now cash is worth more than a slightly greater amount in credit that must be consumed by a fixed date.

I've refared the same Southwest ticket twice on a couple different occasions.

A question, because I don't know: what major airlines give their top-tier elites free refares on nonrefundable tickets that would cost the rest of us $150 to change? And are there any airlines that have some sort of lesser or no refare fee for non-elites? (e.g., Entire itin remains identical...purely a refare.)

Long ago, I remember visiting an AA CTO as a mere Platinum and refaring tickets, generating small vouchers to use later. No fees. I'm pretty sure Golds/Plats don't have this benefit anymore. Do EXP's?

AS has something of this nature, I believe, waiving change fees for their MVP75s.

B6 will refare the exact same flight without fee, putting the balance into a credit account valid for one year.

Airlines do not give refunds if the price drops at a later date. However, your itinerary will be re-priced if you change your flight. Your oriiginal flight may have cost $400, but if it currently sells for $300, then the airline will price your change request at $300+$150-$400 = $50.

I would make the change directly with the airline. I'm not sure what Expedia would do for you.

I always wait as long as possible before making flight changes. The change fee is the same, no matter if you change the arrival & departure dates, or arrival & departure airports. All the changes can be made at the same time for one fee.

At least with some airlines, the $50 of which you speak could actually be a $150 charge and a $100 credit to use on your next flight. Furthermore, the expiration date on the $100 credit could be the original ticket date plus 1 year.

For a frequent flier, the distinction is likely minor. You take your $100 and apply it to your next flight. For an infrequent flier, the utility of the residual credit is definitely something to consider.

The Value of an E-credit to a Non-Frequent Flyer
 

Excellent point, especially now that some credits are not transferrable.