Plane ticket prices fluctuate wildly—often within the same day. Hopper found that two out of three ticket prices drop at some point within 24 hours and you can save an average of $67 using the little-known free cancellation policy.
All domestic and foreign airlines are required by the US Department of Transportation to allow travelers to either hold a reservation for 24 hours without payment or cancel a ticket within 24 hours without penalty if your flight is seven or more days away.
Will you really save money using this cancellation policy to cancel a flight and then book it again? Probably.
Hopper analyzed just how useful the cancellation policy is, aiming to ultimately answer the question, 'How often will I find a cheaper price within the 24 hour cancellation window?' It turns out it's quite frequent: 68% of the over 16 million searches we tested dropped in price at some point during the 24 hours following the search (Table 2). 50% of the time, the lowest price seen within 24 hours was at least 5% lower than the original price, and 35% of the time the price was at least 10% lower. Given how much prices fluctuate, a savvy (and speedy) consumer could potentially book, cancel, and rebook repeatedly, using the 24 hour cancellation policy multiple times.
A 25% price savings was found only 11% of the time, but even saving 5% on your plane tickets (50% frequency) is money in the bank.
Find out more details on Hopper, including airlines' cancellation policies.
Save an average of $67 on airfare with 24-hour cancellation policy | Hopper
Photo by comedy_nose.
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