Years ago, airlines would take reservations and hold a fare for free. But like checked bags and onbo

Travelers can find it difficult to keep their options open while trying to get good seats on a flight and locking in a good price, especially with airfares changing often and planes more crowded. Nobody wants to buy a $600 nonrefundable ticket, have their plans fall through and not be able to use it or be forced to pay exorbitant fees to change flights.
Airfare options work similarly to a stock option. The seller of the option charges a fee to hold your flight reservation at a certain fare, but you're not obligated to buy a ticket. If your travel accommodation hotels mallorca plans change, you can simply let the option expire and you've lost only the fee, not the full cost of the plane ticket.
"If you've ever coordinated accommodation hotels mallorca one of those ski trips or golf vacations with a group of friends, you know you can be the sucker who puts down the $500 for the flight and nobody goes," said Heidi Brown, co-founder of BitBend, a fare lock-in startup in Chicago.
A fare option might work like this: You pay $9 to lock in ticket at a set fare for three days while you get your spouse or friends to commit to a getaway or wait for your boss to approve vacation time.
Typically, accommodation hotels mallorca the longer you hold the fare, the more the option costs. You don't get your fee back, regardless of whether you make the purchase or let the option expire. For option sellers, it's a delicate balance of pricing options low enough to entice consumers, but high enough to make money, considering they may not make the final sale. There's also the risk for the option sellers that a fare could go up while a consumer decides, which means, depending on their arrangement accommodation hotels mallorca with the airline, they'd have to pay the difference in ticket prices.
Years ago, airlines would take reservations and hold a fare for free. But like checked bags and onboard accommodation hotels mallorca meals, that freebie went away. Now, carriers and online travel agencies have instant ticketing, with 24-hour accommodation hotels mallorca cancellation periods, which is federal law.
"It's mainly for people with mushy plans they don't know if they want to go at all or exactly what day and they want to lock in a price," said Rick Seaney, an air travel analyst and co-founder of FareCompare.com . "I think it's a niche business. A certain type of person might do it."
While it might be a niche product, fare options companies argue it's valuable because plane reservations are often nonrefundable, unlike reservations for hotels, car rentals and restaurants. accommodation hotels mallorca Buying an option is an alternative to buying a refundable ticket, which can cost twice as much as a nonrefundable ticket, or paying flight change fees, often $150 per ticket. (A notable exception is Southwest Airlines, which doesn't have change fees.)
For example, Hobica wonders accommodation hotels mallorca why other airlines in the hyper-competitive industry haven't copied the idea if it is a moneymaker. And the 24-hour cancellation rule helps in many situations where a fare option would be useful, Hobica said. "I've never used it, and I don't think I would use it."
Another hurdle for the smaller companies is building trust. "If you're a whole new brand, an unknown brand, I think it's a tougher sell," Seaney said, adding that people might not be willing to give their credit card numbers to an unfamiliar company.
United Airlines Farelock : The best-known option service and the only one that's fully functional is FareLock by Chicago-based United Airlines. It adopted the service from Continental after the airlines merged in 2010; the combined airline began offering FareLock in March.
United's Farelock, only available if you book certain United or United Express flights accommodation hotels mallorca at United.com , allows you to hold your itinerary and price for either 72 hours or seven days for a fee. You purchase FareLock, if available, on the "review trip itinerary" page after you've selected flights online. The service locks in a fare in a certain section of the cabin, not a specific seat.
"The reasoning behind it was to give customers more flexibility and peace of mind when booking their travel," said United spokeswoman Mary Clark. "That was something that our customers wanted." United declined to release sales numbers for FareLock, but "it's fair to say initial sales exceeded our expectations and have grown strongly since," Clark said.
Pricing of FareLock options can go as low as $1, but they typically cost $9 and up, based on such variables as flight itinerary, accommodation hotels mallorca how far in advance the booking is and demand for the flight, she said.
OptionIt : OptionIt, operated by Chicago-based Smart Options, currently sells "reserve now, decide later" options on sporting-event tickets and travel packages. It plans to offer options on airline tickets too, company officials say.
While officials don't have a date for when the company would start offering airfare options, they said they were in late-stage talks with airlines and other travel-related companies. The company might offer options at a stand-alone website or as the behind-the-scenes engine that offers options on other travel or airline websites.
BitBend : BitBend's co-founders, husband-and-wife team Rob and Heidi Brown, have financial backgrounds he in futures trading and she in international currencies and love to travel, said Heidi Brown, chief marketing officer. "We merged our experience with our passion," she said.
It, too, plans to place a hold or what it calls a bend on airfares for a number of days or weeks while consumers finalize travel plans. BitBend.com plans to promote accommodation hotels mallorca on social media the good fares it finds and suggest people buy options to lock in a price before it disappears. "You can have this group-travel buzz going around 'OK, guys, who's in? Who wants to go?' " she said.
The couple started working directly with airlines, but carriers were moving slower than BitBend wanted, Brown said. So BitBend became a travel agency to gain access to airline seat inventory and the ability to book tickets.
If a customer decides to exercise the bend it doesn't use the word "option" the company will buy the plane ticket, making money on the bend price plus any ticket-price difference that falls in its favor. It expects most bends to cost $5 to $25, taking into consideration the airfare, length accommodation hotels mallorca of the bend and number of days from the departure accommodation hotels mallorca date, Brown said.
Perhaps the biggest drawback for some consumers is that they can't choose flight times or the airline, accommodation hotels mallorca although the company plans to add that feature, said Jack Connor, a SteadyFare co-founder. He said the company is tinkering with the business model. Not specifying an airline or flight time gives SteadyFare more choices of flights, ensuring it can book the ticket for those who exercise their options, he said.
Unlike others, SteadyFare's option is essentially a cap on airfare for two or four weeks. You won't pay any more than your option specifies, but if prices drop, you'll pay the lower price when you book. Another advantage is the ability to choose a range of departure and return dates.