For option sellers, it’s a delicate balance of pricing options low enough to entice consumers, but h

Fliers today can find it difficult to keep their options open while trying to get good seats and locking in a good price, especially with airfares changing often and planes more crowded. Nobody wants to buy a $600 nonrefundable ticket, have their plans fall through and not be able to use it — or be forced to pay exorbitant travel to mexico requirements fees to change flights.
Airfare options work similarly to a stock option. The seller of the option charges a fee to hold your flight reservation at a certain fare, but you're not obligated travel to mexico requirements to buy a ticket. If your travel plans change, you can simply let the option expire and you've lost only the fee, not the full cost of the plane ticket.
travel to mexico requirements "If you've ever coordinated one of those ski trips or golf vacations with a group of friends, travel to mexico requirements you know you can be the sucker who puts down the $500 for the flight and nobody goes," said Heidi Brown, co-founder of BitBend, a fare lock-in startup in Chicago.
A fare option might work like this: You pay $9 to lock in ticket at a set fare for three days while you get your spouse or friends to commit to a getaway — or wait for your boss to approve vacation time.
For option sellers, it's a delicate balance of pricing options low enough to entice consumers, but high enough to make money, considering they may not make the final sale. There's also the risk for the option travel to mexico requirements sellers that a fare could go up while a consumer decides, which means, depending on their arrangement with the airline, they'd have to pay the difference in ticket prices.
Years ago, airlines would take reservations and hold a fare for free. Like checked travel to mexico requirements bags and onboard meals, that freebie went away. Now carriers travel to mexico requirements and online travel agencies have instant ticketing, with 24-hour cancellation periods, which is federal law.
"It's mainly travel to mexico requirements for people with mushy plans — they don't know if they want to go at all or exactly what day — and they want to lock in a price," travel to mexico requirements said Rick Seaney, an air travel analyst and co-founder of FareCompare.com. "I think it's a niche business. A certain type of person might do it."
While it might be a niche product, fare options companies argue it's valuable because plane reservations are often nonrefundable, unlike reservations for hotels, travel to mexico requirements car rentals and restaurants. Buying an option is an alternative to buying a refundable ticket, which can cost twice as much as a nonrefundable ticket, or paying flight change fees, often $150 per ticket.
For example, Hobica wonders why other airlines in the hyper-competitive industry have not copied the idea if it is a money-maker. And the 24-hour cancellation rule helps in many situations where a fare option would be useful, Hobica said.
• United Airlines FareLock: The best-known option service — and the only one that's fully functional — is FareLock by Chicago-based United Airlines. travel to mexico requirements It adopted the service from Continental after the airlines merged in 2010; the combined airline began offering FareLock in March.
United's Farelock, only available if you book certain United or United Express flights travel to mexico requirements at United.com, allows you to hold your itinerary and price for either 72 hours or seven days for a fee. You purchase FareLock, if available, on the "review trip itinerary" travel to mexico requirements page after you've selected flights travel to mexico requirements online. The service locks in a fare in a certain section of the cabin, not a specific seat.
• OptionIt: OptionIt, operated by Chicago-based Smart Options, currently sells "reserve now, decide later" options on sporting event tickets and travel packages. It plans to offer options on airline tickets, too, company officials say.
• BitBend: BitBend's co-founders, husband-and-wife team Rob and Heidi Brown, have financial backgrounds, said Heidi Brown, travel to mexico requirements chief marketing officer. It, too, plans to place a hold — or what it calls a bend — on airfares for a number of days or weeks while consumers finalize travel plans. BitBend.com plans to promote on social media the good fares it finds and suggest people travel to mexico requirements buy options to lock in a price before it disappears.