When looking to book an inexpensive flight, almost everyone has struggled with the decision on whether to book the flight now or keep clicking back and checking other sites for the price to go down.
Similarly to circling around to find that perfect parking ticket, the rush of finding a low price causes many to keep clicking around in disregard of data showing that booking earlier will save you 30% on average.
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A common hack known by frequent travelers is to use the Google Flights (GOOGL) -) "Track Prices" feature — those who have not yet booked their travel use the tool to get notifications about price changes for their itinerary while those who lock their flight in early will get a refund of the difference in Google Pay in the event that the fare drops.
Overpaid for Delta flight? Try this fare-booking trick next time
Vivian Tu, the former Wall Street trader and popular personal finance educator behind the Your Rich BFF account, recently drew attention to how this tool can be used when booking flights directly with an airline that would normally not offer a fare difference refund.
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"Any time you book a Delta Air Lines flight, find the exact same flight on Google Travel and then turn on this 'Track Prices' button," Tu explained to her two-million-plus followers. "If and when you get a notification alerting you to the price drop, what you're going to do is go to the app or website of Delta and pretend like you're going to modify your flight."
Pretending, in this context, means selecting the exact same flight as a "modification" — this will, according to Tu, get one the fare difference refund without having to cancel one's flight and pay the associated charges.
'Technology does all of the hard monitoring work...'
"You're just going to find the same flight and then put yourself on it again but what you'll realize is that if your flight has dropped in price and you put yourself back on it, you'll get an eCredit for the difference and then you can use that money for another flight," Tu said. "I love this little trick because it helps make sure I'm not leaving money on the table while technology does all of the hard monitoring work for me."
Such a "travel hack" may not work for airlines whose websites block modifications for the same flight. Companies also tend to crack down on such a tech glitch on their part when these hacks go viral on social media — Tu's video on the travel hack was upvoted more than 100,000 times and received thousands of comments from travelers who reported trying it.
In the comments to her followers' questions, Tu said that the trick also works for Southwest (LUV) -) and American Airlines (AAL) -) while one follower said that she tried it for a booking at a Hilton (HLT) -) hotel and was also able to get a credit.
Others, however, reported getting a broken link or otherwise being blocked from making the change on Delta's website — basic economy fares, in particular, are least likely to work for such modifications.
