The Extra Mile, Oct. 15: FareTracker By the Numbers + Rove’s Newest Transfer Partner

📉 FareTracker’s First Week, By the Numbers

Airlines are counting on you to book a flight and never check the price again … and not long ago, it didn’t matter if you did.

Most major U.S. airlines used to charge $200 or more to change a domestic ticket, which wiped out the savings from almost any price drop. Then in 2020, during the worst of the pandemic, they scrapped change fees on Main Cabin tickets and up.

Now, if your fare drops after you book, you can cancel and rebook the same flight at the lower price and pocket the difference as travel credit.

But the airlines won’t tell you when that happens. So the Thrifty Traveler team built something that will.

It’s called FareTracker. In its first week, more than 6,000 of you signed up, and you’ve already gotten back $10,250.61 in travel credits on flights you’d already paid for!

🔍 How It Works

Say you paid $387 for a Delta flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Los Angeles (LAX), and a few weeks later, the price drops to $312. Cancel, and Delta gives you the full $387 back as an eCredit. Use that credit to rebook the same flight, and you’re left with $75 toward your next trip. Generally speaking, those eCredits are good for 12 months.

FareTracker does the watching for you. Just add your flight and the amount you paid, and we’ll check the fare every day. If it drops $20 or more, we’ll email you step-by-step rebooking instructions for your airline. At launch, it works on Delta, American, United, Southwest, and Alaska flights booked directly with the airline.

It won’t work on basic fares, whether that’s basic economy or basic business class, because airlines won’t let you change or cancel those tickets without a hefty fee (if it’s even possible). The lone exception is Southwest Basic, which can be canceled for a travel credit valid for six months instead of 12.

It’s free for up to five flights at a time, or 10 for Thrifty Traveler Premium members. Even better, we don’t need a credit card on file, your confirmation numbers, or access to your inbox.

Start tracking your flights for free

📊 Week One, By the Numbers

We launched last Wednesday, and here’s a quick snapshot of how the first seven days went:

• 👥 6,062 travelers signed up
• ✈️ 3,523 flights being tracked right now
• 🔁 67 rebookings logged
• 💰 $10,250.61 back in travel credits
• 💵 $152.99 saved per rebooking, on average

That average is double the savings in my Delta example, and it’s a credit on a trip you were already taking.

One tip if you’re using it: After you rebook, tap “I rebooked this flight” in your dashboard. That resets tracking to your new, lower price, so if the fare drops again, you’ll get another alert – meaning you can save on the same flight more than once.

📈 Most Fares Went Up … But Not All of Them

As of our daily price check this morning, 70% of the flights we’re tracking cost more now than when travelers booked them. Only 16% are cheaper. The rest are within $10 either way.

That’s normal. Fares usually climb as a flight fills up, with fewer seats left and more people chasing them. But nearly one in six tracked fares is still sitting below what people paid, on the same airlines, for the same trips. Airfare isn’t one big number moving in lockstep. Every flight is priced based on its own supply and demand.

And no surprise, Minnesotans are dreaming of somewhere warm. Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Cancun (CUN) is our most-tracked route at the moment.

🛠️ What’s Next

This is version one, and we’ve heard your feedback. Right now, FareTracker can’t track open-jaw or multi-city trips, like flying into Rome and home from Milan. That’s near the top of our list, and we hope to add it soon.

Airlines will keep moving fares up and down every day. Now you’ve got someone watching yours.

Already booked a trip? Add it to FareTracker for free

– Nick Serati, Thrifty Traveler co-founder

🎙️ New Pod Alert: A Travel Insider Joins the Show!

📲 Inside the Airlines & the Future of Points, with Zach Griff

❓ What aren’t the airlines saying out loud? How will tech and AI shape our travels? And what’s the future of award travel look like? Those questions are big enough for the guys to bring in another expert to tackle them: Zach Griff!

Watch it now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And stay tuned for the next installment next week!

🤝 Deal of the Day: Alaska’s Ski & Surf Sale – Ends Tonight!

Heat scale (out of 3): 🔥🔥

Why we love it: Jump on this Alaska sale to book your ski trip, but book ASAP – this sale ends tonight at midnight!

Fares start at just $99 with best availability this winter flying to ski towns and beach towns alike!

Book this sale on Alaska’s website before it expires tonight at midnight

– Gunnar Olson, Thrifty Traveler Premium deal analyst

↔️ Finally: You Can Share Hyatt Points Online

When Hyatt blew up its award chart earlier this year, it tossed in a couple of consolation prizes … and one of them finally arrives today.

Starting today (Oct. 15), World of Hyatt members can transfer points to another member directly on Hyatt.com. It doesn’t look like the functionality is live quite yet, but Hyatt promised it would be available today, so check that link above a little later on.

It’s a small fix after a rough year. Some nights at Hyatt’s top hotels now cost as much as 75,000 points, up from 45,000 … and both of Hyatt’s credit card transfer partners (Chase & Bilt) have cut (or will soon cut, in Bilt’s case) most transfers to a 4:3 ratio, so 1,000 points sent over now becomes just 750 Hyatt points.

You’ve always been able to give Hyatt points to anyone with an account for free, but the process was a relic. You downloaded a PDF form, filled in both members’ details, and emailed it to Hyatt.

If a phone number or address didn’t match exactly, Hyatt rejected it, and you had to start over. In our experience, it generally took about a week for the transfer to go through … if you had everything right.

So why does this matter? Most people don’t earn Hyatt points in one big pile. A standard night at a top Park Hyatt now runs up to 75,000 points. If you have 30,000 and your spouse has 45,000, neither of you can book it alone … but together, you can.

It also helps if you’re traveling with a friend who has Hyatt’s top-tier Globalist status. Send them the points, book the room in their name, and you both get perks like free breakfast and waived parking.

There is one catch, though. The old form had no cap on how many points you could move. Now, Hyatt says members can send and receive up to 525,000 points per calendar year. That’s plenty for most of us, but given the amount of points required at some of Hyatt’s top-tier properties these days, it could limit you to just a week-long stay at the best hotels.

Hyatt points may be harder to accumulate these days, but at least now they’re a lot easier to share.

– Nick Serati, Thrifty Traveler co-founder

☝️ Another One: Rove Adds JetBlue Transfers + 20% Bonus

Rove can’t stop, won’t stop adding transfer partners! Its latest addition? JetBlue TrueBlue.

This marks Rove’s 22nd transfer partner in total and its second U.S. airline partner, following the addition of Frontier earlier this summer. Other standout options include Japan Airlines (JAL) Mileage Bank, SAS EuroBonus, Finnair Avios, and more.

To celebrate the big news, Rove is offering a 20% bonus on transfers to JetBlue through Nov. 14, at 11:59 p.m. ET. That means every 1,000 Rove miles you transfer will yield 1,200 TrueBlue points.

You can, of course, use those points to fly JetBlue to or from its hubs up and down the East Coast. But you can also use them on the airline’s robust network of global partners, such as Condor, Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways, and even United Airlines.

Let’s start with the obvious: flying JetBlue. A one-way flight from Boston (BOS) to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) can often be had for 11,200 TrueBlue points (give or take) and just $5.60 in taxes and fees. Factor in the 20% transfer bonus and that’s just 9,400 Rove miles, so even a small stash can go a long way.

Or, you could fly even further south into the Caribbean like this route from New York (JFK) to Punta Cana (PUJ) for just 5,800 TrueBlue points and $55 in taxes and fees. With the current 20% bonus, you’d need just 4,900 Rove miles to thaw out on a beach this winter.

If you’re looking for something a little more exotic, you can fly Qatar Airways to Doha (DOH) and beyond for as few as 41,500 points in economy – or 90,000 points in business class, when there’s availability. With a 20% transfer bonus, you’d need just 34,600 Rove miles for the 12-hour flight to the Middle East.

Or maybe Europe is more your cup of tea. JetBlue flies a handful of its own routes to Europe, but you can also use TrueBlue points to fly German leisure carrier Condor to Frankfurt (FRA) and beyond.

The 10-hour nonstop flight from Seattle (SEA) to Frankfurt will set you back 29,000 TrueBlue points and just $22 in economy. Once again, this deal is made even cheaper with the current 20% bonus: Just 24,200 Rove miles!

Condor flights from the East Coast are even cheaper and include the airline’s swanky lie-flat business class seats from 54,000 TrueBlue points.

Add it all up, and this is a pretty exciting development from the fast-growing loyalty program that burst onto the scene last year, offering travelers a way to earn transferable points through the Rove travel and shopping portals.

If you haven’t yet familiarized yourself with Rove, it might just be time to start paying attention.

New to Rove? Sign up today and get a 500-mile bonus!

– Jackson Newman, senior editor

🧳 Come Work With Us: We’re Hiring a Flight & Hotel Expert!

Are you a diehard traveler and bona fide “sicko” (that’s a term of endearment around here) when it comes to hotels and award travel?

Do you love nothing more than scouring for the next great flight or hotel redemption? Want to help others do the same? Loathe the prospect of another devaluation but relish the thought of breaking that news?

We don’t just want you. We need you.

Here at TT HQ, we’re hiring again – this time for a dedicated flight & hotel deal analyst. This role is first and foremost about finding great travel deals.

It’s a hybrid role, split between the two worlds of what we do here at Thrifty Traveler:

• You’ll spend much of your day searching for and analyzing flight deals, award availability, and hotel deals.
• Once you find something worth sending, you’ll work with our Thrifty Traveler Premium team to research and verify the details and help turn it into a useful, actionable alert for our members.
• You’ll also contribute a little bit of writing to Thrifty Traveler’s newsletters and other content, primarily focused on hotels, flight deals, and points and miles.

Not the right fit but know someone who could be? Send them our way – if we hire them, we’ll give you a $500 airline gift card to an airline of your choice!

There are tons of additional details, responsibilities, qualifications, and basics about the job on our site. While we’re primarily looking for someone who can join us in our Minneapolis office, we’re also considering fully remote applicants who are a perfect fit for the job.

Think that’s you? Be sure to apply by the Nov. 1 deadline!

… and see you soon in the office?

– Kyle Potter, executive editor

✈️ Other Travel Tidbits

• ⛽ ANA is raising fuel surcharges on Japan-origin tickets issued Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, including award tickets, to about $390 each way to North America and Europe, up from about $350. (ANA)
• ⏰ Last chance: Chase’s 70% bonus on transfers to Marriott Bonvoy ends tonight at 11:59 p.m. ET.
• 🛂 Less than two weeks after TSA expanded its Gateside passes, which let non-flyers go through security to meet or see off travelers at the gate, the program is quietly “on hold indefinitely” everywhere except the original 13 pilot airports. TSA isn’t saying why. (WAVY)
• 🏨 Hilton’s fall promotion is live: register by Dec. 31, and you’ll earn 1,000 bonus points for every stay, or 3,000 at luxury hotels and resorts, with no cap. (Hilton)