Price Accuracy & Fare Rules

1. Prices are indicative until ticketed

Every price shown on this website, quoted on a call, or sent in an email is an indicative price based on the inventory and fare filings available at that moment. It becomes a firm price only when the booking is confirmed by the supplier and, for air travel, when the ticket is issued and a ticket number is returned. Until then, neither we nor the airline has any obligation to hold it.

That is not a disclaimer we hide behind — it is a description of how airline distribution actually works, and understanding it saves a lot of frustration. This page explains where the numbers come from, what moves them, and what we do when something goes wrong.

2. Live inventory and why prices move

Airline pricing is the interaction of two things: a filed fare, which is a price attached to a booking class and a set of rules, and availability, which is how many seats the airline is currently willing to sell in that booking class on that specific flight. Filed fares change when the airline files them, which for major carriers can be several times a day. Availability changes continuously as seats sell, as the airline’s revenue management system re-forecasts demand, and as inventory is opened or closed between classes.

The practical consequence is that a fare can disappear while you are still on the phone, not because anyone moved it, but because the last seat in that booking class sold to someone else. When that happens the itinerary reprices into the next available class, which is a higher number. Our advisors will tell you the moment it happens and quote the new figure; we will never quietly ticket at a higher price than the one you agreed.

Car rental inventory behaves similarly but usually more slowly: rates are pulled live from the supplier or its distributor at the time of search, and a rate plan can be withdrawn, or a vehicle class sold out at a branch, between search and confirmation.

3. Full-fare advertising and what is included

US Department of Transportation rules at 14 CFR 399.84 require that any advertised air fare be the entire price to be paid by the consumer. We apply that standard to every price we display, and to the way our advisors quote on the phone. A displayed air price therefore includes:

• The base fare for the itinerary and cabin shown.
• All applicable government taxes and fees — US federal excise tax, segment fees, passenger facility charges, September 11th security fee, international arrival and departure taxes, and the equivalent charges levied by other countries.
• All carrier-imposed surcharges, including any fuel or carrier surcharge component.
• Any Zeptotravel service fee that applies to that booking, where one applies.

The number you are quoted before you authorise payment is the number that will be charged. If it changes, we tell you and you re-authorise. Nothing is added between the quote and the payment page.

4. What is not included

Optional and third-party-collected charges are itemised separately rather than folded into the headline price, because they are not payable by every traveller and in many cases are not payable to us at all:

• Air: checked and excess baggage, seat selection where the fare does not include it, priority boarding, in-flight purchases, and change or cancellation penalties incurred later.
• Car rental: counter-collected charges such as airport concession recovery fees, vehicle licensing recovery, young-driver surcharge, additional-driver fee, one-way drop charge, fuel purchase options, tolls and equipment hire, and any collision or loss damage waiver you buy at the desk.
• Post-ticketing service fees as published in our fee schedule.

5. Currency and conversion

Prices display in US dollars unless we say otherwise. Some fares and rates are filed in another currency and converted for display using the rate applied by the supplier or the settlement system at the time of the search. If your card is denominated in a different currency from the currency actually charged, your issuer performs its own conversion at its own rate and may add a foreign transaction fee — that is between you and your issuer, and we cannot predict or refund it. Where a supplier offers dynamic currency conversion at the point of payment, choosing to pay in your home currency is usually the more expensive option; our advisors will say so.

6. Fare rules and where they come from

Every air fare carries a set of fare rules filed by the airline with the fare itself. The rule text governs advance purchase requirements, minimum and maximum stay, permitted routings and stopovers, whether the ticket is refundable, what a change costs, whether the fare can be combined with another fare, baggage allowance under the applicable resolution, and which booking class the fare is tied to. It is the authoritative document for what you can and cannot do with the ticket — more authoritative than any marketing description, including ours.

We read the filed rule for the specific fare being ticketed, not a general summary, and we tell you the parts that matter: refundability, change cost, baggage, and any minimum stay or routing restriction that could bite. Ask and we will read the relevant paragraph to you or send it. Fare rules are dense and written for the trade; that is exactly why having someone read them for you has value.

Car rental has its own equivalent: the rate rules attached to the rate plan, and the rental agreement you sign at the counter. The same principle applies — the supplier’s document governs.

7. Branded fare families

Most carriers now sell the same seat under several brand names — typically a basic or restricted brand, a standard brand, and one or more flexible or premium brands within the same cabin. The brand determines what is bundled: seat selection, carry-on and checked baggage, changeability, refundability, boarding priority and loyalty accrual.

The trap is that the cheapest brand is frequently not the cheapest trip. A basic economy fare that excludes a carry-on bag and charges for a seat can cost more in total than the standard brand once you add what you actually need, and it usually cannot be changed at all. When we quote, we show the branded fare and what it includes, and where a higher brand is better value once your bags and seats are added, we say so. That comparison is one of the more useful things a person can do for you that a search box does not.

8. Taxes and carrier-imposed surcharges

The tax line on an air ticket is a collection of separately identified charges, each with its own code, imposed by governments, airports and security authorities in the countries your itinerary touches. Carrier-imposed surcharges look similar on a receipt but are not taxes: they are set by the airline and form part of the fare, which is why they are generally not refundable when a non-refundable ticket goes unused, whereas genuine passenger taxes usually are. This distinction is the reason a taxes-only refund on an unused ticket can be either a meaningful sum or almost nothing, depending on the route. We will break the components down for any ticket on request — see the Refund & Cancellation Policy for how taxes-only refunds are claimed.

9. Dynamic pricing and personalisation

Airline and rental prices are dynamic: they respond to remaining inventory, days to departure, day of week, competing schedules and demand forecasts. That is why the same route costs different amounts on different days and why a price you saw last week may not exist today.

We want to be precise about what we do not do. We do not raise a price because you have searched for it before. We do not vary a quoted price based on your device, your operating system, your location, your cookie history or whether you appear to be a returning visitor. We do not use inferences about you to set a price. Where an airline itself offers a personalised or continuous-pricing offer through its own channel, the price we can quote is the price the distribution channel returns to us, and we will tell you if a carrier’s direct channel is likely to be cheaper for your itinerary.

10. Price changes between quote and ticketing

If a price moves between the quote and ticketing, this is what happens, in order: we stop; we tell you the new total and the reason; we look for the same or better value on an alternative flight, class or brand; and we ticket only after you confirm the new figure. If you do not want it, nothing is charged and any authorisation is released. Where a card has already been charged and the booking cannot be completed at that price, we refund in full to the original form of payment. Our liability in that situation is limited to that refund, as set out in our Terms & Conditions.

A held quote is not a held fare unless the airline itself supports a hold on that fare, which some do for a limited period and most do not. If a hold is available we will offer it and tell you exactly when it expires.

11. Obvious errors and mistake fares

We apply this narrowly and in good faith. It covers genuine errors of magnitude, not fares that are merely cheap: a low fare is not a mistake fare, and we do not cancel a good deal because we later wish we had priced it differently. Once a ticket has been issued we do not use this clause to unwind it — at that point the ticket exists, the fare rule governs, and the position is between you and the carrier. The carrier retains whatever rights its own conditions of carriage give it. Nothing in this section limits your statutory rights.

12. Car rental

The same principles apply, with one difference of degree that is worth stating. A car rental quote covers the base rate and the taxes payable in advance; the counter-collected charges depend on the driver’s age, the licence presented, the extras taken and the pick-up location, and they are therefore estimated rather than fixed. A quote for a rental is a narrower promise than a quote for an air ticket, and we say which parts of it are firm and which are estimates when we give it. The charges most likely to move between quote and counter are the young-driver surcharge, the additional-driver fee, a one-way drop charge, fuel options and any waiver product bought at the desk — all of which are listed in section 4 above and all of which are the rental company’s money, not ours.

13. If a price was wrong

If you believe you were quoted or charged incorrectly, tell us within 30 days of the charge. Email support@zeptotravel.com with the booking reference, a screenshot or the quote email, and the amount you expected. We will pull the recorded call and the pricing record from the reservation system, compare them against what was charged, and write back with the finding within 10 business days. Where we got it wrong, we correct it and absorb the difference. Where the difference came from a supplier repricing, we will show you where in the record it happened. Escalation and dispute routes are in section 19 of our Terms & Conditions.