Few things rankle as much as losing money when you don’t have to. Airfares are a case in point. Lots of airlines will actually refund the difference, in the form of a voucher, should you purchase a ticket and then the fare falls. Among them are Alaska Airlines, discount airlines JetBlue and Southwest, United, and US Airways. The key is being clued into when this happens.
Yapta, short for “Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant,” can help. The online company has launched a public beta test of what it claims is the industry’s only airfare tagging service.
It tracks rates on specific flights and then alerts you via e-mail when they fall below a specific limit. The upshot is that you know about the lowest price, and can then take advantage of “guaranteed airfare rules” offered by a number of carriers. This puts you in a position to land one of those travel vouchers, and in some instances even a cash refund, when the price falls on tickets you’ve already bought.
Yapta is betting this idea will catch on. Information is powerful stuff especially when it’s relayed quickly. “Airline ticket prices are highly volatile,” says Tom Romary, Yapta President and CEO. “It [is] very difficult for most consumers to be assured they are getting the beat deal possible.” What Yapta does, he contends, is provide transparency, allowing some money-saving sunlight to shine in.
Here’s an insight into the mechanics: you can “tag” specific flight itineraries you want to track by downloading a browser add-on. Additionally, you can employ Yapta post-purchase by entering your confirmation code or flight information into the Yapta Web site.
The company says the add-on is benign, that it works for you only when shopping online, that it doesn’t come into play during any other Web surfing. Once you tag a trip, it’s automatically aggregated into a “My Trips” page at www.yapta.com. Then, the Web site starts to work in earnest, separating flights that have been purchased from those that are being watched.
So, does it work? Yapta says it ran a private beta test in December 2006. In three months the company claims it alerted 275 test travelers to approximately $30,000 in eligible savings and refunds. The average net gain per traveler was $109.
© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler
