Continental Airlines recently introduced a new feature for its fares called “Fare Lock” which will allow a customer to “lock in” a fare for 72 hours or 7 days (depending on fee and your needs) so you can think about your purchase.  In this age of airline business, I never thought I would see a fee I liked but I like this one.

The fee is reasonable at $5 to $9 and win-win for both parties, in my opinion.  There is value added for the consumer and the airline gets just a little bit more information to be used for its revenue forecasting and analysis.  Now, you are buying insurance with the very company that can manipulate fares but if you think Continental is going to manipulate those fares just for you, you’re kidding yourself.  This is a convenience fee when it comes to fares and it allows you to lock in the fare while you consider both your travel requirements as well as other fares. 

It’s a fee that I would and will use myself. 

One thing I find curious, however, is that this is a Continental fee and not a ContiUnited fee.  I would have expected the announcement to come from both sides of the house and it didn’t.  This leads me to believe that United’s system might not be able to accomodate such a fee or that this is experimental and Continental was deemed to have the best customer base for trying it out.

Filed under: Airline Fees by ajax