Do You Want to Avail Promo Airfares? Think Again

The cost of airline tickets stashes away a substantial amount in our budget either for the purpose of leisure or business. This can be intensely felt on personal trips where you have to shell out your own money. Unlike on official travels, it is mostly paid by the company while it covers the minimum facilities. However if you wish for any upgrades and other additional amenities, then you have to pay on your own the difference.

Last month during my vacation, I ended up spending considerable amount for nothing with our airline tickets.

The trip was well planned ahead of time with detailed daily itineraries. All the necessary airline tickets were already purchased. Oftentimes you can avail cheaper rates if you purchase the tickets in advance and so we did.

To save cost, we decided to avail the promotions offered by the airlines. It was indeed a quite big chunk of savings for us but the unexpected happened – the demise of a family member.

The news had a great impact to our itinerary. Some activities were kept but most of it was cancelled. And this cascaded to our purchased airline tickets. After finalizing the revised itinerary, we sat down with the airline agent for almost two hours and went through the total of 15 tickets which were either extended, rebooked or cancelled.

We were thankful for the tickets that were amended without any hefty penalties but we greatly suffered for tickets that could not be rebooked and amended. The money went for nil.

And why we cannot rebook or amend the other tickets? It was simply because we availed the promotional airfares. We learned our lesson in a hard and costly way.

There are few restrictions to be cautious when purchasing airline tickets in promotional fares.

Selling & Travel Period. The selling period refers to the duration of which the promo airfares are available for purchasing. Promos are always bound with validity which oftentimes a limited period only. The same will apply for travel period. The promo airfare will have a certain period which the ticket will be valid for travel.

Non-reroutable. Be careful with this condition. Any modifications in the route of your ticket even if the destination is the same are not allowed.

Non-transferable. Tickets cannot be sold or given to others.

Non-refundable. If the trip is cancelled for whatsoever reasons, the money paid for the ticket cannot be taken back.

Non-changeable. Changes in the flight time and dates are not permitted.

Non-endorsable: Though this restriction is very rare, it is generally overruled by local legislations especially on grave instances such as flight cancellation. Non-endorsable means if your airline has a problem you are not allowed to fly on another airline.

Rebookable with penalty. This condition is quite common. The tickets are permissible for rebooking (i.e. change of date, time) but charges will apply.

These are the most common restrictions which are generally featured in airline tickets. Promos are always real value saver provided you read and understand the applicable terms and conditions.

So before you grab the next attractive promo airfare in the ad, make sure to read and understand the restrictions.