Even non-refundable fares can be canceled. Non-refundable just means you don’t get your money BACK, but the airlines hold the money associated with your ticked “on account” referenced by the ticket number, less a change fee (which can be up to $150). For example, I recently bought a ticket for a cross-country flight on Delta for the week of 4/10. My plans changed and I needed to book the same itinerary but a week later. The fare was cut in half, so even after the change fee (a reasonable $50 for ‘elite’ members on Delta) I still have $270 towards my next flight.

Having a way to get this all the time would be fantastic, and I surely would pay the $40 annual fee to have someone do the work for me and save, potentially, hundreds of dollars each year. The key is that the savings has to be above and beyond any and all change fees.

http://www.sugg...stusability.com

Some of the variability of pricing is built into yield management practices. Now, as a frequent traveler, I believe there should be more transparency in airline pricing but if 34% of the travelers start requesting 16% refunds it wouldnt take too long for the airlines to start shutting down 3rd party refund processing, or worse, increase prices for everyone. Take a look at airline P&L and tell me how many can take a 5% hit to their bottom line ( ~ 34% times 16% ) without going under.

A couple of quick points in response to the thoughtful comments made by your visitors:

- We’ll email people when the Yapta Beta is “open” in May (just sign up under announcements at http://www.yapta.com ). We’re also adding users to the private Beta everyday.

- People use Yapta to track multiple of flights when planning a trip, and we alert them when prices drop so they can buy the best deals. This is actually a very compelling solution for airlines too: Yapta delivers buying customers directly to their websites. The airlines want to build direct relationships with online customers (and only 41% of all airline tix are bought online, so there is lots of room for category growth).

- Airlines do offer coupons and travel credits on price drops (and yes, definitely for non-refundable tickets), but only if you bought your tickets directly from the airline. They want your loyalty, and the airline giving you a non-transferable “coupon” for future travel is smart because it brings you back to their airline website again (maybe to buy 2 tickets and a Cancun vacation package — a win for the airline and you!).

- Last, as one reader points out, prices change hourly. This is exactly why our Beta users love that we continue to monitor prices mutliple times daily, and why we alert them when the price on their trip drops.

The Yapta crew looks forward to helping more people save money (and travel more)!

Tom

1) Another bookmarklet? Cmon – how many bookmarklets do you already have? Do you need/want more than Delicious, Magnloia, SU toolbar? It’ll just clog you browser. From experience, nobody’s going to DL this except the company’s employees.

2) Prices change every minute! You’ll find a great price, wait a few days (the only reason they’d save it in the 1st place right – if not, I can compare directly on Expedia and Travelocity) clickthrough and be disappointed.

Just my 2 cents.

I know what it is…it’s the crappy weather there that makes people want to look for cheap tickets easily and quickly to get the hell out of there as often as possible!

Even a refundable ticket will probably have fees. And my educated guess tells me that as time moves forward fares get higher.

The only way for a fare to get lower is if people cancel their tickets. Otherwise as planes fill up, they fill up with cheaper tickets, and the fare gets higher as the seat buckets get more rare.

So there is probably a fee with either one, and typically the fee for any change in ticket is > $100.00

So the chance of saving money by monitoring for a price drop and being able to get the airline to reimburse you in some fairly liquid way… doubt it.

G – I wonder why they’re still in Beta.

Also, the idea of monitoring a ticket for a price drop is kind of worthless even if you haven’t purchased it. The price is probably going to go up over time, so if I’m looking to save money, I should do it sooner, and just be flexible on WHEN I want to travel.

The most exciting blog was powerset scandal, rivals pump & dump, and others. They were 1# best blogs…

Everytime you see this web 2.0 stuff.
It’s 100% re-inventing wheels website.
What is innovation behind Yapta.com?

I see trip ticket cost, nice graphics… nice graphics and nice graphics. :/ But what about other travel website. They have similar idea as Yapta .

Now, I’m confused with TC’s web2.0 concept. I’m not 100% sure if TC have lost it’s way out. Maybe, Rivals.com destory it or TC got lazy.I don’t know how to say this… TC is out of batteries.

How long can we bring TC spirit back?

How could this article miss an opportunity to feature http://www.FareCompare.com?

Hands down the best travel search website on the market.

Try it out, FareCompare does all the searching for you. No more 15 open windows. No more expired session. No more paying more than you need to.

(Note: I am not affliated in anyway with FareCompare. I just think they do a great job and deserve a mention here.)

that said – there is one particularly brilliant developer at yapta, initials m.c.

Read the contract of carriage and the fare rules for the ticket you buy, it’s clearly stated in there.