Sell or buy unused travel bookings
For sellers, the sites offer a chance to recoup much of the cost of a trip they can no longer make, due to work, illness, emergency or death. For buyers, they open the door to cheaper travel and accommodations, bringing more expensive options within reach or simply making a getaway affordable.
Savings for buyers are typically between 20% and 30%, but can be much higher, especially for reservations just a few days away.
The platforms, including Transfer Travel, SpareFare, Plans Change and Roomer, charge sellers commissions of between 10% and 30%. “It depends entirely on the offer, but on average the value our sellers recoup is around 1,000 pounds ($1,867),” says Maisie Blewitt, head of commercial at UK-based Transfer Travel. “Normally it would have been lost.”
How ticket transfers work
At Transfer Travel, a service team verifies the details of a new seller’s account. After selecting a booking, the buyer then communicates via a chat function with the seller, who is responsible for changing the name on the reservation and providing proof of the switch. The seller will not be paid until the ticket transfer is completed, with funds retained for up to five days.
“On the chat we will see the documents with the name of the new buyer,” Blewitt said, although she acknowledged that it “can be a bit of a scary process for some.”
The 10-person company has about 99,000 users in the UK and US, she said. In Canada, customer volumes increased by 45% last year. “There’s so much pressure on people to save money,” Blewitt said. “It is a great alternative to purchasing travel in the traditional way.”
There is also a limit to its appeal.
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Downsides include limited options and no loyalty points
The potential downsides for buyers include sparse and seemingly random booking options, zero loyalty points (they are not honored or collected through third-party booking sites), and the fact that most major airlines in North America prohibit ticket transfers.
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Those looking for precise dates or destinations may be out of luck. Bookings for more than two people are rare. And some flight discounts are “not that great” – especially given their last-minute nature – Nastro said. “It’s so widely used that it’s gaining popularity, but I wouldn’t say it’s as widely used as, say, an online travel agency.”
Flexible travelers drive resale travel markets
Travelers with flexibility – young people, retirees, digital nomads – form the core of the eBay-like marketplace’s customers. “This is more for someone who is single, can drop everything and maybe work remotely or is just looking for a quick getaway,” Nastro said. The demographic group called DINKs — dual income, no children — are among the more recent adopters, Blewitt said.
In North America, air travel poses some of the biggest hurdles. “Flights are always a bit tricky, especially from America and Canada,” she said. That partly explains why 48% of Transfer Travel’s bookings are for accommodation, and not airline tickets. Cruises represent another 22%.
Users should also do their own research, including the reputation of a particular short-term rental and whether a carrier allows ticket transfers. For example, SpareFare, where buyers can bid on airline tickets already purchased, maintains a list of airlines that allow name changes. Air Canada and WestJet are working on it. The problem is that they generally don’t allow name changes. “Air Canada allows name corrections, such as typographical errors in names, not name changes,” Air Canada spokeswoman Angela Mah said in an email.
Verify sites to avoid scams and fraud
Some hotel chains are also wary of the practice, says Barry Choi, who runs the personal finance and travel website Money We Have. Guests may need to show identification with the name on the original reservation to check in, he said.
Security and fraud are concerns with any purchase of second-hand tickets, including in the travel market. Experts recommend confirming that the site verifies listings and holds funds, and be wary of less regulated forums like Facebook Marketplace. Scams are “not that common” on travel resale sites, Blewitt said, although she has seen them before.
Prepaid reservations are just one of many travel hacks — flight and cruise standby lists, packing light and smart use of loyalty points are a few more — and provide a little portal to escape at sometimes low prices. “The average holiday for four people is now in the thousands,” says Blewitt. “It’s actually crazy money. “We believe travel should be accessible,” she said.
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