In April I booked my first glitch fare to Greece. My roommate and I flew from New York City to Athens for less than $200 roundtrip on a major airline, but it wasn’t all cookies and cream. When an airline or a third party vendor has realized that you got a plane ticket for the low, they will do almost everything that it takes not to lose their money. However, if you follow these 11 tips you should be able to have a seamless and (almost) drama-free experience.
1. Book now, think later
Or, as we say in Nomadness Travel Tribe: #bookthatish. With glitch fares, you HAVE to book immediately. The fare is cheap, which means that the loss won’t be much on your part if the flight gets cancelled by the airline or if you can’t get the time off work.
2. Purchase insurance
When you make the initial purchase, pay the extra $15-$20 for travel insurance. I typically don’t purchase flight insurance, but when you get a glitch fare, the airline will try to do anything to not have to honor your flight. Having insurance will add an extra padding of safety to your trip that will secure your travel plans.
3. Be patient
Once you book the flight, you’ll have to wait to see if the airline will honor it. If they don’t cancel it, your flight time or date might change multiple times before you depart. Keep checking your itinerary periodically to make sure that everything looks okay.
4. Don’t get angry
If something goes wrong, stay calm at all costs. If you’re at the airport and suddenly you have no ticket, be calm, friendly and kiss ass if you have to.
5. Don’t panic
Yes, traveling on a glitch fare can take a lot of thoughtful action. If a change is made to your flight, there is always a way to fix it. Don’t think that things won’t work out.
6. Try to book with the actual airline
If you can avoid it, don’t book your flight through a third party site. This will avoid getting the “you didn’t book your flight through us” run-around if you have to make changes to your flight.
7. No matter what, become a member of the airline’s mileage program
Two words: preferential treatment. Being a member of the airline my flight was booked on helped me change my flight when the airline originally didn’t want to do it.
8. Make flexible housing arrangements
After a few weeks (given that the flight isn’t immediate), use Airbnb, Expedia’s Book Now Pay Later, HostelWorld.com or any other service that’s flexible with housing. Airbnbs can always be booked at the last minute unless the place where you’re traveling will have high traffic. Book Now Pay Later won’t take money out of your account if you book far in advance and have to cancel because of a flight change. Hostel World will allow you to pay when you arrive.
9. Wait until at most a month before to book extras
Purchase tours, excursions, connecting flights (if possible) because of the possibility of changes. If you can, put a down payment down on any of these activities. Doing so will allow you to change the time if needed.
10. Connect with other people who got the glitch
Being a part of Nomadness and Travel Noire District made it easy for me to get the 4-1-1 on what was happening with other people’s flights. This way I was able to know how others handled issues if they arose.
11. Exhaust your options
At the end of the day, if anything happened, I always made sure to use every avenue I could think of to make sure that my trip went smoothly. This might all seem very scary, but all it takes is a whole lot of patience and a handful of finesse.
