I’ve been wanting to write about this for quite a while and got reminded of it because it became useful once again. Nearly all the people I mention this to aren’t aware of it, and for people obsessed with getting the cheapest flight ticket possible, like me, it is incredibly useful.

It’s called “courtesy booking” and you can only get it directly from the airline. What it means is that the airline books the seat for you, as a courtesy, without you paying for it just yet. They will give you a deadline–usually up to a few days prior to the departure date–by when you’ll need to call back and pay for the ticket at the price set when the booking was made. Some airlines offer this to you, but in most cases you’ll have to know about it and ask. It only happened to me once that the agent told me that she can not do courtesy booking for one particular flight I was interested in. If you don’t call back, the reservation is simply cancelled, no hard feelings.

What this means is that you can book a seat to ensure that you have something to fall back on, still being able to look for a cheaper fare.

Try it, works both in Europe and the US.

PS. Needless to say, this only applies to the non “value” airlines.

No tags