TravEVl-whoring
As some good fraction of the people still reading LJ probably know, I have pivoted my EV whoring these days into an airline travel/frequent flyer program focus these days. The click-baity version of the title might be "top N secrets the airlines don't want you to know!" But srsly, these things are worth knowing.
0. Not an airline secret, but Google Flights is pretty awesome especially for flexible-date type searches, once you figure out how to fiddle with dates in the optimal way.
1. free 24-hour hold/cancel: broadly speaking, if you have a flight within, or beginning or ending in the US for foreign carriers, the airline must do one of (a) allow you to hold the reservation for 24 hours at the quoted price before deciding whether you want to buy it, or (b) allow you to cancel a purchase within 24 hours of purchase, provided in either case that the reservation is made at least 7 days before departure. Of the major airlines, until recently all opted for (b) except for American which offered (a) but as of April, American joined everyone else. Note that some airlines have policies more liberal than the mandated minimum -- Delta's risk free cancellation policy waives the 7 day advance requirement, and also gives you until midnight of the day following the purchase (so could be almost 48 hours if you book right after midnight). Check your airline's web site or Google for the particular details, they're required to publish them somewhere (but some don't make it obvious).
2. free cancellation due to schedule change: again broadly speaking, there are several categories of change that can entitle you to cancel for free: (a) schedule change that changes arrival/departure by more than some threshold, or reduces a connection time below some threshold, (b) change of operating carrier (e.g. Delta/United/America "mainline" swapped out for Delta Connection/United Express/American Eagle), (c) adds or changes an intermediate connection point. Details vary by airline, check the conditions of carriage, and they're "more what you call guidelines" as Capt. Barbossa would say, you can often get free cancellations when not technically permitted based on how friendly the agent is and/or if you hold elite status. Note also, where you see "free cancellation" also read "free itinerary change" because they would rather keep your business and will very often permit you to change to earlier/later flights, change your connecting city (or turn a connection into a non-stop) for free even though again technically they could charge you a change fee.
3. the major US airlines (Southwest might be the only exception) have something called Same Day Confirmed (SDC) that allows you to, (yes) broadly speaking, change your flights (but not origin/destination) if your flight is in the next 24 hours. There are lots of caveats; in coach generally the same booking fare class must be available, and there will be some fee (waived for elites), on some airlines your new flight must be the same calendar day as the original flight, on some it can be 24 hours either direction, etc. Google your airline's particular set of rules. But the SDC fee is usually cheaper than if you just changed your flight outright (change fee + difference in fare). This can be useful when you'll take your original flight if you have to but you'd really really like to leave/arrive earlier/later. It's also better than standby, because as the name says, if it is available then you hold a *confirmed* seat on the new flights.
4. recently America, Delta, and United all suspiciously in the same short period of time made changes to multi-city itineraries that makes them much more expensive to book together on a single ticket. If you want to fly A->B, B->C, C->A, and buy that as one ticket, it could cost you a lot more than if you booked it as three one ways. So price it both ways before buying to make sure you aren't paying extra for no reason.
0. Not an airline secret, but Google Flights is pretty awesome especially for flexible-date type searches, once you figure out how to fiddle with dates in the optimal way.
1. free 24-hour hold/cancel: broadly speaking, if you have a flight within, or beginning or ending in the US for foreign carriers, the airline must do one of (a) allow you to hold the reservation for 24 hours at the quoted price before deciding whether you want to buy it, or (b) allow you to cancel a purchase within 24 hours of purchase, provided in either case that the reservation is made at least 7 days before departure. Of the major airlines, until recently all opted for (b) except for American which offered (a) but as of April, American joined everyone else. Note that some airlines have policies more liberal than the mandated minimum -- Delta's risk free cancellation policy waives the 7 day advance requirement, and also gives you until midnight of the day following the purchase (so could be almost 48 hours if you book right after midnight). Check your airline's web site or Google for the particular details, they're required to publish them somewhere (but some don't make it obvious).
2. free cancellation due to schedule change: again broadly speaking, there are several categories of change that can entitle you to cancel for free: (a) schedule change that changes arrival/departure by more than some threshold, or reduces a connection time below some threshold, (b) change of operating carrier (e.g. Delta/United/America "mainline" swapped out for Delta Connection/United Express/American Eagle), (c) adds or changes an intermediate connection point. Details vary by airline, check the conditions of carriage, and they're "more what you call guidelines" as Capt. Barbossa would say, you can often get free cancellations when not technically permitted based on how friendly the agent is and/or if you hold elite status. Note also, where you see "free cancellation" also read "free itinerary change" because they would rather keep your business and will very often permit you to change to earlier/later flights, change your connecting city (or turn a connection into a non-stop) for free even though again technically they could charge you a change fee.
3. the major US airlines (Southwest might be the only exception) have something called Same Day Confirmed (SDC) that allows you to, (yes) broadly speaking, change your flights (but not origin/destination) if your flight is in the next 24 hours. There are lots of caveats; in coach generally the same booking fare class must be available, and there will be some fee (waived for elites), on some airlines your new flight must be the same calendar day as the original flight, on some it can be 24 hours either direction, etc. Google your airline's particular set of rules. But the SDC fee is usually cheaper than if you just changed your flight outright (change fee + difference in fare). This can be useful when you'll take your original flight if you have to but you'd really really like to leave/arrive earlier/later. It's also better than standby, because as the name says, if it is available then you hold a *confirmed* seat on the new flights.
4. recently America, Delta, and United all suspiciously in the same short period of time made changes to multi-city itineraries that makes them much more expensive to book together on a single ticket. If you want to fly A->B, B->C, C->A, and buy that as one ticket, it could cost you a lot more than if you booked it as three one ways. So price it both ways before buying to make sure you aren't paying extra for no reason.