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United Airlines FareLock

I'm sure many here know about the United Airlines FareLock process, but I had never used it until today. What a great tool!

I'm trying to pin down flights for a not-yet-planned summer 2018 trip. With itinerary details up in the air, I'm having difficulty settling on the timing, especially for my return flight. Though I'm pretty sure I missed the bottom of the airfare market here in DC, there is a decent fare available now for non-stops into Munich (only one flight a day) and out of London over a range of dates. Other dates are much, much more expensive for that Munich flight, so I feel like I need to act right away. But I'm uncomfortable locking in dates as of today.

For United flights (I would guess including United Express), you can select the flights you think you want and choose seats--at least in regular economy--then pay just $4.99 to lock in the price for 72 hours. There's also a week-long lock available for a bit more (I think $6.99). That fee is for the entire reservation--round-trip in my case. I assume that a family traveling together would pay just the one fee but haven't tested what happens on a multi-ticket purchase. [See Mark's post below--I may be wrong about the cost of FareLock on multiple tickets for people traveling together.]

After you purchase the ticket three days later, you have the normal 24 hours to cancel for a full refund, though I believe there may be an exception to that cancellation rule if you buy the ticket quite close to the departure date.

I imagine some other airlines have a similar option, but I wouldn't be surprised if you're always limited to doing this on the ticketing airlines' own flights.

Posted by
3514 posts

Fare lock is per ticket (or at least it was when I used it). No family discount.

It is only for flights on United planes, including Express. Code share unfortunately doesn't qualify.

United allows the 24 hour cancellation on all flights except those purchased the same day as the flight. This might be depending on your frequent flyer level, but I have booked flights as close as 48 hours from time of purchase and have been able to cancel them for a full refund .

Posted by
26840 posts

Thanks for the correction, Mark; I'll update my post. I may well have misinterpreted what would happen if you wanted the FareLock on multiple tickets. I'm a solo traveler.

I'm not wedded to any particular airline, but my only choices for non-stops to Munich are United and Lufthansa, and the last time I looked Lufthansa was hundreds of dollars higher. I've flown Lufthansa, and it was not special.

Posted by
26840 posts

Just an update on the potential virtues of FareLock in conjunction with Google Flights' tracking feature (or similar information provided by another airfare website).

I've paid about $12 for two sequential locks on flights into Munich and out of London. Google has just notified me that the fare has jumped from $832 to $1325. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I actually want to begin the trip in Munich, so I have some hard thinking to do between now and Sunday night. I love being able to take long trips, but the longer the trip, the more challenging it can be to manage weather patterns along with the usual routing concerns.