People who book budget flights online will soon be able to cancel as late as the day before travel and receive almost a full refund – ushering in a new era of buying flights on a whim.
Customers will be able to buy when best prices flash up, but without the threat of losing all their money if they later decide not to take the flight.
In the autumn, Opodo is introducing an optional “ticket protector insurance” that will cost about 4 per cent extra when making bookings.
This will allow customers who decide that they do not want to take flights to cancel and receive an 80 per cent refund on the price of tickets.
Also in the autumn, Opodo will start offering ten budget carriers such as Ryanair and easyJet for the first time, creating a whole new potential market of people who “buy but may not fly” in the future.
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Caroline Noble, director of Opodo UK, the second-biggest seller of flights online in the country after Expedia, told Times Travel: “Many tickets are unrefundable, but this new service will change that.”
For example, a 4 per cent “ticket protector insurance” on a £50 return flight to Ljubljana in Slovenia would cost £2. If the purchaser decided to cancel, the refund would be £40.
So instead of losing the full £50 fare, only £10 would have been forgone, plus £2 for the insurance.
Cancellations will be allowed up to midnight on the day before travel. Opodo has already successfully introduced similar systems for its customers in France and Germany.
Previously, Opodo, which arranges flights for 50,000 passengers a month, did not offer Ryanair and easyJet flights as “some of the low-cost carriers do not want to give business to someone else”, according to Noble.
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However, the website has made a deal with a flight “aggregator” in which customers will pay an extra £5 per booking for a budget airline ticket. This would bring no-frills airline, charter and scheduled airline tickets on a single website for the first time in the UK.
Opodo innovations
Google maps showing local hotel options (online by August).
“Travel extras” offering green weddings (August).
Text messages with flight and destination weather information (September).
Mooted text message service with daily flight deals.