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Do you continue to check fares AFTER you have puchased?

I just did. I wish I hadn't. On 9/1 I started checking fares outbound mid May inbound mid June. Three legs: Charlotte to Vienna; Vienna to Moscow; Helsinki to Charlotte. For four weeks fares fluctuated from $1490 - $1610. On 9/28, the fare jumped to $2800 when Lufthansa implemented high season fares effective 5/16.
So I panicked. I changed the travel dates to 5/3 to 5/29....fare was $1340, so I bought the tickets and moved on....three legs...9000 miles, I thought that was a pretty good fare and wouldn't do much better. Then the thread about the 10 day trip to Italy with $4000 airfares got me wondering if my fare had gone up ... I couldn't stop myself this morning. Checked my itinerary at the airline website and the fare is now $1078 !!! Feeling just SICK right now. My lesson learned - buy it and don't go back to the website.

Posted by
23609 posts

Air fares and stocks have a lot in common. Movement can be irrational. Very difficult to buy at the bottom. I look back from time to time for future reference but don't dwell on it. Are you sure that the 1078 fare was exactly the same as what you purchased? The market is up today. Monte needs better stocks if he is lose ground.

Posted by
1001 posts

I do not check fares after I have purchased for just that reason! I don't want to know if they are lower.

Posted by
11613 posts

A good fare is what it's worth to you. I do a lot of searches over time beforehand, so when I find a fare that I think is good enough I buy it and don't look back.

Posted by
8293 posts

No, I never check fares after I have booked. I book the flight I can afford for the dates I need and get on with the rest of the planning. "Je ne regrette rien ..."

Posted by
1417 posts

Elaine, I have done just what you did and found out the fare went down a bit. I wasn't too disappointed that time but from now on, I will not re-check fares after purchase. Just because i dont want that disappointment. What George said....kind of like the stock market. Be satisfied. For what it is worth, I think you still got a pretty darn good fare. Linda

Posted by
1840 posts

We don't check back. We go with what we got. My stocks went down today.

Posted by
4637 posts

No. It won't change anything and could be disappointing. Besides sometimes the advertised fare is just for one or two seats and disappears when you go for it.

Posted by
989 posts

Actually, George, dips in my stocks amd 401Ks don't bother me at all, maybe because that's money well into my future and it's not like I have any control over IBM anyway. However, the $250 difference is cash out my checking account so that is the NOW to me. Plus, that was an extra $250 from mother who's retired on a fixed income. Still, I did think the fare was as good as I'd get at the time, and we did get excellent seat selections. BUT, I won't be going back to check fares after I've made the purchase EVER AGAIN.

Posted by
32345 posts

Elaine, The simple answer to your question is NO. I don't see any point in checking after I've booked, as it won't change anything. The money has already been paid, and there's no point in tormenting myself with "what if I had waited". I haven't yet figured out a concrete way to determine when the absolute lowest prices will be available, so just try to get the best price possible at the time I'm booking. Cheers!

Posted by
2081 posts

Elaine, if you are going to keep on traveling, you can always look @ fairs on your next trip not that they will be the same, but you should get a feeling for the cost of the legs. ive only been there 3 times so far and the fair has been somewhat consistent but have gone up when i chose my times. If you can do the wing it approach then i can see trying the air fair game, but to me, i just keep on planning and buying. how that saying go.....sometime you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. happy trails.

Posted by
989 posts

Yes Frank - the exact same flight numbers and times. It just proves there is great fluctuation in the carrier's pricing structure (but NONE in the the taxes and surcharges, which is more than 60% of the current fare.)

Posted by
1525 posts

Yes, I look. But the reason I look is not to punish myself, but to educate myself. True, much of airfare fluctuations defy rational analysis, but I figure the more I know about what happens to airfares when, the better equipped I will be the next time around. Your bottom line is that you got a decent price fare and now you can go ahead and plan the other details. You shouldn't kick yourself.

Posted by
14929 posts

Hi, Whether I go back to look at the fares after I've purchased the ticket, yes and no. There have been times I almost constantly check back after the purchase was made, and on other trips I don't look back at the fare at all. What's done is done. Looking back to check up on fares does play havoc with your mind.

Posted by
951 posts

I always keep checking fares and most of the time, I chose the right one. Only once in 8 trips did my airfare go down but it wasn't by much. I think that it is only human nature to want to know if you did the right thing; you just can't pout too much if you jumped the gun too soon. I have always heard that if it is a substantial different, they refund you some money. Not sure if that practice is still going on.

Posted by
2155 posts

Elaine,
Yes, I do check later. Often my reaction is: thank goodness I booked when I did (only crummy seats might be available or connections require arrival in Kennedy with departure in LaGuardia, etc.) But, if the difference is significant (to be worth the hassle), I've actually paid the $250 penalty and rebooked to receive a credit of several hundred dollars per person.....but, it's got to be a significant $ drop to be worth going thru all that. You got a very decent fare in the scheme of things, so don't mentally punish yourself :)

Posted by
2829 posts

I usually don't check prices of things I cannot get refunds from. However, it it is something I can cancel easily (like a Booking. com hotel reservation or a car rental that can be cancelled without penalties, I do check them often for better prices).

Posted by
873 posts

I usually don't, but the curiosity borne from this thread just make me check the flight I booked a couple of months ago for next May. I booked an open jaw into London and out of Copenhagen for $935, and now it's $1,138. I'm glad my early-buying decision feels justified, but I can certainly imagine the pain of learning you could've saved yourself a couple hundred! At least there is the knowledge that you have a very pricy part of your trip paid for and out of the way.

Posted by
12313 posts

I set up multiple alerts (for various airports, dates, options) then watch them for awhile before booking. After I book, the alerts keep coming; like it or not, I know if the airfares get better after I book. They rarely do because I buy no more than two or three months out - most often before the direct flights sell out completely.

Posted by
8312 posts

Airlines are now very good at controlling Supply and Demand on European fares. International airlines just about always belong to one of three airline affiliations, and those relationships are also playing a big role in keeping airfares high. We intend to purchase airfares 60-90 days prior to departure, but we watch airfares on ITA Matrix every few days. It's all to get a feeling to what a normal baseline airfare is going to be. We try to travel on Tue.-Wed, and it's easy to figure out what dates the airfares increase seasonally. Spring Fares will start 3/28/2014, for example. For flights out of the Southeast, I watch the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Travel section for Clara Bosanetto's Airfare Watch. Twice recently, there have been one day sales on European airfares out of Atlanta and a few other large U.S. cities. I caught 3/25/2014 ATL-Budapest and a Prague-ATL return flight for $728 total, far below $1,050 we'd been earlier seeing. That's a $644 savings for two.
-Unfortunately, your far north destinations are best seen in Summer when airfares are their highest.

Posted by
76 posts

There is an event I try to attend every year in The Netherlands in June. I check airfares every month and have subscribed to airlines' newsletters trying to catch a break on airfares. These last 3 years are terrible! So, short answer, I am constantly checking, just to see if I can find a pattern for the following year. :(

Posted by
30 posts

Yeah but only within 24hrs after initially buying my ticket. Air Canada has a grace period of 24 hrs from the time you purchased your fare, in which you can cancel for whatever reason. After 24 hrs, I stop looking, I don't want to feel the disappointment.

Posted by
7 posts

I do check, up until the day before I fly out. I've had several people (who work at airlines) tell me that the major airlines will credit you (usually in frequent flier miles for a future flight) any difference in airfare if it drops lower than what you already purchased it for (MUST be for the exact same flight itinerary to take advantage of this loophole). Airlines don't want you to know this though. I booked a flight out of SLC to Dublin for $680 RT in mid September on a Thursday afternoon (pretty good for SLC)-right after I booked (less than 5 minutes), it went up $30 and it just keeps rising (to over $1000). Now less than 2 weeks before I fly out, rates are going up exponentially every day. I don't expect it to get any less at this point, but I still check, just to make sure :)

Posted by
3642 posts

I don't, in general, keep checking. However, a couple of years ago, I got an e-mail from Delta, about 6 weeks before departure, announcing a big sale. Out of curiosity, I checked; and I found the price for our tickets had dropped $375/pp. $750 is not chump-change to us. Even after subtracting the $250/pp fee for changing the tickets, we had $250, for which we were issued vouchers, used on the next trip. There's no way I would have waited until 6 weeks ahead of departure to buy, so I chalked up the $500 as the price for certainty; but I was also happy to get the $250.