Why is it sometimes more expensive to change my flight than to purchase a new one on Hopper?

In many cases, it can be more expensive to make changes to your itinerary rather than purchasing new flights outright. Unfortunately, Hopper does not have any control over the prices of tickets, and our airline partners set these prices. For example, when you purchase an economy class ticket, you are buying a class of service in a certain price bracket, which is what determines how much your ticket originally costs. This is why you will see economy tickets available at many different prices for the same flight and seats. 


The class of service also determines how restrictive the fare rules are on the ticket. When you want to make changes to your ticket, the airline requires that we price the change in the same or a higher class of service, or price bracket, as the original ticket. As the calendar gets closer to the date of the flight, the classes of service on the flight become uniformly more expensive. This means that you may see a better price offered on Hopper for a flight, as it will be in a lower class of service than we are allowed to change your ticket to.

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