Booking a flight often comes with a familiar dilemma: book now and risk watching the fare fall later, or wait and hope the price does not climb. MakeMyTrip is now trying to address that uncertainty with a new ‘Price Drop Protection’ feature for flight bookings.
The feature is an optional add-on for both domestic and international flights, covering one-way and round-trip bookings. Once selected during checkout, MakeMyTrip tracks the fare of the specific flight after the ticket is issued.
The move adds another layer to MakeMyTrip’s existing flight-assurance options, which include products such as Zero Cancellation and Free Date Change. While those features deal with cancellations and changes, Price Drop Protection focuses specifically on what happens if the fare becomes cheaper after booking.
Once a traveller opts for the feature and completes the booking, MakeMyTrip tracks the fare until six hours before the scheduled departure. If the fare for that specific flight falls below the price at which the ticket was booked, the traveller is notified about the drop.
The difference is then eligible for a refund, which is processed back to the traveller’s original payment method. This means travellers do not have to cancel and rebook the ticket simply because the same flight becomes cheaper later.
The protection comes at an additional cost. For domestic flights, it starts at Rs 229 per person, while the fee for international flights starts at Rs 349 per person. The refund, however, is capped at Rs 2,500 per person for domestic flights and Rs 3,000 per person for international flights.
The cap becomes important when the difference between the original and revised fare is substantial. For instance, if an international ticket booked for Rs 1 lakh falls by 15% to Rs 85,000, the fare difference is Rs 15,000. Under the protection, however, the traveller would receive only Rs 3,000 per person, since that is the maximum payout for international bookings.
There is also a post-travel step in the process. MakeMyTrip’s current information says travellers need to claim the refund after completing the journey and within 30 days of the departure date, rather than receiving the money immediately when the fare drops.
According to MakeMyTrip, the feature was tested before its wider rollout, with the company saying that early users on both domestic and international routes received price-drop refunds. The protection therefore changes the usual flight-booking calculation from simply watching fares before booking to paying for coverage against a fall after the ticket has already been issued.
