For several years now, many airlines have been offering that you can hold a price in order to have some time to think about it. However, there are quite big differences between the conditions of the various airlines. Some make you pay for that time, some refund the amount in the event of a booking, and with one airline this is even completely free of charge for status members. We have read through all the conditions and can now give you an overview:
Table Of Contents
Aegean
For domestic flights, Aegean charges €5 for holding the price, international it is €7 (the info about the amount is contradicting on various Aegean sites. €7 seems to be correct, though). The amount is calculated per passenger and gives you a thinking period of 2 days for domestic flights and 4 days for international flights. The option is not available for flights that are part of a sale or award flights.
Air France – KLM
Air France and KLM both offer this option. The price depends on the destination and the number of days until your flight departs. To give you an idea, holding a short-term short-haul booking will cost €20, while it may only cost €10 if the flight is months away. Holding long-haul flights tends to cost €30. The thinking period at Air France-KLM is 72 hours.
British Airways
British Airways also gives you 72 hours to think about it, but it costs a bit of money here too: €5/£5/$5 for short-haul routes, €10/£10/$10 for long-haul routes – per person. Here, however, that money will not be charged if you end up actually booking the flight within those 72 hours!
Sadly, some countries are excluded from this option. You cannot hold the price if your British Airways flight departs from:
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Argentina
- Barbados
- Dominican Republic
- Egypt
- India
- Liberia
- Mexico
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Sierra Leone
- St Kitts & Nevis
- St Lucia
- St Vincent & Grenadines
- Syria
- Trinidad & Tobago
Emirates
At Emirates, the price depends on the route, e.g. to Dubai this will cost €20 per passenger (except for babies). However, if you book the flight within 72 hours, the fee will not be charged. Sadly, this option cannot be used for Cash + Miles bookings. Also, it is only available for economy class tickets.
Emirates also excludes some countries from this option. To hold the fare, you cannot depart from:
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Chile
- Greece
- Japan
- Mexico
Iberia
Unsurprisingly, the conditions are almost identical to those of sister airline British Airways. Iberia gives you 72 hours to change your mind. You have to pay €5/£5/5 for short-haul trips or €10/£10/$10 for long-haul trips. If you then do decide to book the flights, these €5 or €10 will be deducted from the flight price.
All flights have to be Iberia or British Airways flights for this to work. Also, the flight has to be more than 5 days away.
ITA Airways
ITA gives you 72 hours to think. The flights need to be operated by ITA. Domestic flights cost €10 per passenger, international flights cost €15 per passenger, and intercontinental flights even cost €25 per passenger, regardless if it’s a one-way ticket or a round-trip. Furthermore, the flight needs to depart in more than 8 days.
Should there be a current sale that ends in less than 72 hours, the time to think will be reduced accordingly.
Lufthansa Group
Lufthansa‘s price depends on the route and time left until the flight. The cheapest price is €7 per person – and you’re not getting that money back. Long-haul flights tend to cost €14 per person.
The flights must all be carried out by Lufthansa – a single segment with SWISS, Eurowings & co., and the option disappears.
Other Lufthansa Group airlines like Brussels Airlines and SWISS use the same booking form as their mother company – therefore, you can hold prices just like on Lufthansa’s website. Also, the same restrictions apply: You can only hold prices of flights operated by the airline whose website you are browsing.
TAP Portugal
TAP lets you decide if you need 48 hours, 5 days, or even 10 days to think about it for a fee starting at €10 pp for long-haul flights and €6/$7 pp for flights in Europe & North Africa. Only babies don’t pay for the option. The flight must also take place in more than 96 hours.
Turkish Airlines
With Turkish Airlines, the price is quite high, often costing around €20 on short flights and over €40 for long-haul tickets – however, these will then be reimbursed in the event of a booking. Miles&Smiles status members (from Classic Plus onward) can use this option for free, and passengers travelling with them too!
Similarly to TAP, Turkish Airlines also lets you select if you need 3, 7, or even 15 days.
United
United offers an option called FareLock. You can reserve the price for 3, 7, or 14 days. The maximum reflection period of 14 days is particularly outstanding. The price depends on the class of travel and the number of passengers – a consistent price structure is not apparent. FareLock is also only available for bookings that include United-operated flights only.
Hint: 24 Hours Free of Charge With all Airlines
Many airlines offer the possibility of cancelling the booking free of charge for 24 hours (e.g. KLM). The airlines from North America are even legally obliged to do so. However, you can also use this for all other airlines, for example by booking on Priceline or Expedia‘s US site. You can then cancel free of charge for 24 hours.
The disadvantage of this way is that you first have to pay for the entire flight booking. If the 24 hours pass, you will not get your money back and the booking will then be confirmed.
Conclusion
This option can be quite helpful for very good deals. Especially with airlines, where the amount is reimbursed if you decide to book the flights, you can then book stress-free the next day and sleep on it for one night. But you should always keep a close eye on how long the reflection period lasts and what the consequences of letting it pass are.
Frequently Asked Questions
Generally, yes! However, this is not entirely risk-free. Since many airlines have even cancelled tickets that have already been booked, it is easy to imagine that they would act similarly here.
For example, if you want to plan the trip with others, but they don’t have time at the moment, or you have to get permission from your employer first, you can consider doing this. Even if it is a lot of money, and you still want to think about it, this can also be useful. However, one should ask oneself whether it is even very likely that the price will rise in the next few days. In the case of first-class offers, this is more likely due to the very limited seat availability (and the fee is not all too significant compared to the ticket price) – but with any fresh €400 economy class deals, you really don’t need to pay to hold the price.
Sometimes this is possible by taking a quick look at the fare rules because they often state an expiry date for the deal. However, the availability can always thin out beforehand. Unfortunately, however, it is often the case that there is no expiration date in the Fare Rules.