Don't Waste Your Money: The catch with Travelocity's low-price guarantee

(Toledo News Now) - Many companies offer a low-price guarantee, including popular travel website Travelocity. It claims it will match a lower price you find - but will it?

Eddie Johnson recently booked a flight to Las Vegas through Travelocity, and thought he had found a decent fare. But he says two days later, he got an e-mail from Travelocity about a Delta fare sale. So he checked, and found that his Delta flight had indeed gone down in price.

"I found out that the exact flight, the exact times, had fallen $104 within that 72-hour timeframe," Johnson said.

So Johnson e-mailed Travelocity, asking for a price adjustment under its low-price guarantee. He assumed there would be no problem, but he assumed wrong.

"The window of that guarantee for flights through Travelocity is within 24 hours of booking," Johnson said.

That's right. Travelocity's main page says you can get a price adjustment if you contact them in a timely manner. However, in the fine print, it explains "timely manner" means just 24 hours.

"I was used to timely manners at stores, like Home Depot, being within 30 days. Being an engineer, I went out and Googled 'timely manner' to at least see if there was some rule of thumb. It varies from 24 hours to 30, to 60 days," said Johnson.

We contacted Travelocity, although the company said its guarantees are clearly spelled out. You have several weeks with a hotel room, but with a flight, their low-fare guarantee is just 24 hours.

Johnson said next time he vows to read the details more carefully, or book through the airline directly.

"The devil is obviously in the details in the fine print," he said.

Travelocity finally agreed to give Johnson a $25 voucher toward any travel package he purchases in the future, but the site would not lower the airfare he paid.

The lesson? It's best to read the fine print of any price match or low-price guarantees, whether it's for travel or at the store. That way you don't waste your money.