The price of flights is going up. Consequently, many people are looking for ways to save money on flights.
Over the past few months, numerous “flight hacks” have gone viral. Internet users have shared money-saving tips of varying veracity, ranging from booking your flights on certain days to using tricks like “skiplagging” to save money on airfare.
At a time when fuel price instability is causing ticket prices to increase, tricks like these are proving popular. However, actually using some of these tricks can have negative consequences, as one TikTok user recently learned firsthand.
What Happened On This Woman’s Flight?
In a video with over 144,000 views, TikTok user Nikki Pindor (@nikkipindor) explains how her attempt to save money ended up costing her around $1,000.
According to Pindor, she planned a trip to Los Angeles using two separate airlines. Her original routing had her taking Delta from Virginia to New Jersey to Miami. From there, she would get off the plane and go to Fort Lauderdale. After that, she would take another airline to Los Angeles.
However, her trip immediately hit a roadblock after her first flight was delayed.
“Now, I won’t make my connecting flight in Fort Lauderdale,” she says.
Trying to find a solution, she reached out to Delta to see if she could be rebooked directly to Los Angeles. She could, but it was going to cost her—specifically, around $600. Add that to the cost of the other, unused plane ticket, and the one delay resulted in about $1,000 of losses for Pindor.
“Two lessons learned. One, buy travel insurance, because now my flight from Miami to LA is just gonna be $300 down the drain,” she starts. “Two, buy with one airline.”
“There goes a band,” she concludes.
Is There Anything A Passenger Can Do In This Situation?
Apart from what Pindor already did, the answer is “not really.”
From the airline’s perspective, they generally only protect passengers that are flying solely with their company or a partner airline. For example, if a delay causes one to miss their connection with the same airline, the airline will generally work to put them on the next flight out or provide them with a refund.
If Pindor booked with a single airline, she might have been able to score a new flight to her destination for free. However, as she did not, her only option is to rebook.
While some in the comments section suggested taking up the matter with her credit card company, there’s likely little they can do. Many trip delay insurance policies provided by credit card companies only kick in after delays of 12 hours or more. Additionally, as long as her original booking still got her to her final destination on time, the insurance policy would likely not pay out.
Is There Any Way To Do This Safely?
If some are wondering whether it’s possible to book with multiple airlines and still have your trip guaranteed, the answer is, generally speaking, no—with some caveats.
For example, one can make their second booking with a refundable or exchangeable ticket. This means that, in the event their first booking is delayed, they can simply cancel or move their second booking to make up for it.
There are a few problems with this, however. First, airlines don’t always fly the same routes every day. This means that, if one misses their second booking, they may only be able to rebook for another flight hours or even days later.
Second, refundable or exchangeable tickets are often significantly more expensive than non-refundable ones. In many cases, they can be double the price or more. This means that whatever cost savings you’re getting by booking with two airlines are probably wiped away by the extra ticket price.
That doesn’t mean that there’s no way to save money on flights, however. For example, many internet users have detailed how one can get cheap or free flights using credit card points.
@nikkipindor baddie’s broke again #flying #moneymoneymoney #delta #airport
We’ve reached out to Delta via media contact form and Pindor via email.