Refundable plane tickets; yes or no

I had a refundable ticket on United for a July trip to Quebec City that I ended up cancelling. I cancelled right on the website and had the credit on my credit card in 2-3 days. Was super easy.

Airfare seems high lately. I’m watching fares to Amsterdam for next June and am not liking what I’m seeing. So if you see a good price I would book it.

I always buy United refundable tickets because my family situations might not be covered by insurance. (One example was a wedding that wasn't on the calendar when I booked my original flight.) I book my flights pretty far out, so I wouldn't have much of a window left to use a travel credit.

When I have seen a price drop, I have rebooked the ticket for the cheaper price, but still a refundable ticket. In those cases, I have paid less for a fully refundable fare, but still more than the original non-refundable price.

"If the price does not decrease, can I just change to a cheaper, non-refundable ticket?"
Whatever the price does, you can always cancel your refundable ticket and buy a non-refundable one, at the going price. You can't convert your existing ticket from refundable to non-refundable.

You mention getting your "pick of seats." If you have paid for upgrades and you refund your ticket, your upgrades will also be refunded. You would have to buy those upgrades again with your new ticket, at whatever the price may be - and it's not guaranteed to be the same as what you paid with the first ticket.

My question would be, do you have a price target in mind (at which point, if you get it
and purchase a non-refundable ticket, will you be able to conquer your obsession)?

Or, will you continue to obsess and keep checking prices?

And, are you content limiting yourself to United, or would you consider a more obtuse
routing or different airline if the price was right?

This is all related to how much you think your time is worth.

I don't think the price of refundable vs non-refundable tickets is necessarily a fixed
difference, so there is a theoretical possibility that you wait too long to pull the trigger
and are stuck paying the refundable price.

But, if you don't spend 23 hours a day checking, and are able to pull the trigger when
you think you have what you want, and won't get upset if by chance you see the price
go down further after you've purchased a non-refundable ticket, I don't see a problem
with your strategy.

We’ve purchased refundable tickets on United on our past 3 trips. I watch fares for a while, then book when they drop. Then I continue to watch regularly. On our most recent trip to Paris we flew Polaris on the outbound flight and economy on the return. At one point several months after I booked the price dropped a huge amount. I rebooked with no difficulty whatsoever (original fares refunded within a couple of days; new fares charged to my credit card). I think we ended up saving close to $1000 for the 2 tickets. I kept watching but the fares jumped back up to what we’d paid originally and kept climbing from there. So I felt really good about that strategy.

I self insure for price changes and canceled holidays. So far its working.

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