Are flexible airline tickets ever worth it?

7/22/2015 9:14:37 AM

Yes. Ignoring the possibility of changing the time of the ticket, which the other answers have covered well, there’s also the ability to cancel it outright, which is often equally relevant. Most full-price tickets can be cancelled either completely for free or with minimal fees, which makes them extremely useful if travelling on a business trip, for example, which you’re not sure is going ahead.

It’s also worth pointing out that most flexible tickets (often called full-fare or full-price tickets) typically come with other perks, often airline dependent, such as:

  • More airmiles.
  • “Preferred” seating or a wider choice of seats (e.g. exit rows).
  • (Occasionally) business lounge access or similar.
7/22/2015 11:28:18 AM

Flexible tickets are worth it if and only if it’s highly likely you will need to change your tickets at short notice.

If you’re on a business trip of uncertain length (say, negotiating a contract), this kind of thing is frequent, and a flexible ticket that costs $1000 is a better deal than a fixed ticket that costs $500 plus >50% odds of needing to pay a $2000 walk-up fare — especially if that negotiation drags on and you end up changing your reservation two, three or four times. One of my previous employers mandated that all tickets purchased in advance be flexible for this very reason.

If you’re a backpacker, on the other hand, this is unlikely to ever be the case, and it’ll be much cheaper to buy fixed tickets and work your own schedule around the fixed dates. For your cheap ticket, the “change fee” is in addition to the fare difference, so the total cost with a last-minute change would sum up to $500 (original ticket) plus $125 (change fee) plus the difference between the original price and the walk-up fare (potentially >$1000).

Note that the conditions of flexible tickets vary, and many do charge the fare difference as well. However, since flexi fares are more expensive in the first place, on busy routes with some spare capacity the fare difference to the cheapest available seat is often zero.

7/21/2015 10:46:55 PM

I can’t speak specifically to Lufthansa, but with some experience on other airlines – if you change your flight on a saver-style fare, you pay a change fee and the difference between the fares.

If you are close to the date of travel the saver fares are generally sold out, so you are paying the difference between saver and flexi, and often a “we’ve got limited seats” premium on top of that because of airline yield management, e.g. buying six months out may save you 500 euros or more compared to a change two weeks out.

Looking at Lufthansa’s website, the same flight is 2,146 euros in two weeks time, so using that and your totals as an example, a late change might result in overall payment of:

 550 (saver) + 125 (fee) + (2146 - 550) (new fare minus original) = 2,271 euros

Obviously this is substantially more than the 1,300 euros for purchasing a flexi fare to begin with.

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About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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