How to save on flights

Thanks Tammy for the reminder to check flights and fares after booking. You did great saving money.
Best I could find with United for my June/July trip was $50 savings but not great connection times. But I did get a $100 credit last year because of a problem with my reservation. It doesn't hurt of ask.

Love it! That's real money for dinners and rooftop tours and Flamenco shows!

Tammy, what exactly do you need to say to get the credit? Do they resist giving it to you? I’ve never done this before but checked and see it is about $200 less per person now. A flight credit is ok if it isn’t too much since we may not use a big amount within a year ( is that the usual time limit)

Tammy, that's awesome! What a great savings! Love flight ecredits; like having a vacation in the bank (almost literally).

Can you clarify for me: I've tracked my flights after-purchase in the past and never come across a better deal (sigh), but I always wondered about the process if I did. I assumed I'd have to cancel and rebook my flights online, and I've wondered if there's a risk to losing my selected seats (like, someone grabs them in between my cancel and rebook) -- which are usually very good, since I tend to purchase early.

But it sounds like you called and an agent took care of everything. Was it super simple? And you kept your seats?

On United, you can just change the flight online and the credit (or refund, depending on your fare) is automatic.

I just checked Google Flights for our multi-city itinerary next fall. British/American have some prices I find acceptable, cheaper than they were a few months ago.

Delta is still out of my comfort zone, although Google shows one Delta flight via Virgin Atlantic that might be possible...

The agent doesn't touch the reservation. They merely give you the credit, so everything, seats etc. stays the same. It just takes some time on hold and patience, but anyone can do this.
I think the ecredit is good for one year. I 've already spent mine on flights to Asia this fall. So yes, there is a time limit to use them.

Awesome, thanks!

I went online to check how to contact American Airlines and a “ chat” option was available. So I keep answering the automatic questions as “ something else” and after a few of those it asked if I wanted to talk to someone.. a real person came on the chat, I gave my confirmation number and asked for a credit. Five minutes later I got $140 pp and an email follow-up confirmation Thanks!!!
Follow-up:
I checked my AA account and it shows the credit ( different from air miles) and it has an expiration date of one year from now.

This is great news! Thanks so much for reminding people to check their flight prices.

Thanks for this reminder and explaining how easy it is to do it.

On the flip side you can check like I just did and see that it's more expensive now and feel good about it :-)

I think the ecredit is good for one year.

And you can technically extend the ecredit by booking and cancelling another flight. I've read about people extending an ecredit for years this way.

Great reminder to keep checking prices!

I just checked my British Airways itinerary for June and the price had not changed, but I did notice that seats in business class are very cheap right now (only about $1K more than economy). I was tempted, but decided to keep my economy seats. If any of you are ready to splurge. . . .

Not only should people periodically check the price of their airline ticket, but be sure to check your reservation and seat assignment. I've had my seats changed due to a change in plane, and I've had the flight dates and itinerary change due to cancellation, and was never notified.

We had the same thing happen to us regarding seat assignments. Apparently it is a different plane and sear configuration. I was just checking one weekend and we were able to get acceptable seats. Now I check every week.

If you set up Google Alerts for your booked flights, you'll will be notified of price changes. I keep my alerts on after we purchase flights, just as research for the next trip, and to confirm we bought at the best time! Hod luck!

Trying to avoid endless time on AA chat without reaching a live agent who clearly can explain our rights to me:

Does anyone know the present AA policy/rule on flight cancellations by the ticket holder?
For example, on August 1, 2024 we booked two round trip main cabin tickets from USA to Lisbon Portugal, departing USA on March 12, 2025. Should we choose to cancel those tickets on March 10, 2025, we will be issued, travel credits, trip credits or flight credits and will they be in credits to each of us separately?

Are all three of these “credits” still being issued by AA?

What will our deadlines then be to use those credits in the future, must we rebook or rebook and begin travel or rebook and complete travel by August 1, 2025, or March 10, 2026? Should we rebook/ travel within the allowed time limit, may we cancel a second time and further extend our allowed reservation/flight time?
Thank you for anyone with current information on this subject.

Does this apply to the European airlines or just US based?

I believe this is for US airlines - I haven’t heard of any foreign carriers having the same policy.

One other thing to be aware of, don’t just check for price drops. The new policies makes it easy to switch flights or dates of travel and easily see what the price differential will be including between economy, premium plus, etc. I mainly fly United and their website is awesome - it allows one to play with dates, routings, etc. I once ended up paying an extra $20 to move from economy to premium plus for a Tokyo - Denver flight. Well worth it.

I had the same experience as Tammy with Delta flights in late 2023. It was very easy to get the ecredit-all I needed to share was my name and the booking number. Very easy to use the credits when booking flights for our next trip!

Recently I was on the phone with an Alaska Air agent to confirm changes on upcoming flights purchased with miles. She recommends checking flights monthly for any changes.