Can I postpone plane tickets that I booked from Cheaptickets.com or other travel sites cheaply?

Question

I am taking a gap year before I start college, and sometime in November, I plan on going to Costa Rica, where I will take Spanish lessons at the language school for 4 weeks. After that, I am not sure what I am going to do. I am in the process of trying to find an internship in Nicaragua with the American Friends Service Committee. However, If I don't get it, I might end up doing the WWOOF program (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) or getting a job somewhere else in Central America. In any case, I don't know how long I will stay after the 4 weeks of Spanish classes are over.

I need to buy the plane tickets as soon as possible. Right now, the cheapest tickets seem to be from Cheaptickets.com. I plan on leaving in late November, and I am estimating that I will probably want to go home sometime around February. However, if I get that Internship or I get some other interesting job, I might want to stay longer.

I am wondering if I should go ahead and book the trip, returning in mid-February. An old friend was visiting me for a couple months this summer, and for some reason, he was able to extend his ticket to a later date for only a $100 fee. I dont know how he booked his ticket, but does anyone know if you can do this sort of thing through travel sites like Cheaptickets.com or Orbitz? Any other advice?

Answer 1

I don't know about CheapTickets specifically, most online travel sites (agencies) will charge you a cancel/change fee (sometimes nothing, but sometimes over $100) and they have strict restrictions on how many days prior to departure that you can cancel/change.  But that is not all. Then, you need to pay the airline their own change/cancel fee.  This is at least $100, but I've seen $400.   Finally, they will charge you for any increase in fare (of course).  You may save on some of these fees by not booking with an online travel agency (ie. Cheaptickets, Orbitz, Expedia) and book your tickets directly with the airline (ie. Delta, United).  Hope that helps!  Good luck.