How long after making a reservation do I have to pay for airline tickets?

[Mom+4]

Sorry, another stupid question. If I make an airline reservation today, how long do I have to pay for it? I am hoping to use income tax refund for airline, and should get it in about 10 days I hope.

 

[cindy_k]

I always buy my tickets online and I have to pay for them with a credit card at that moment. I think even if you call the airline you have to pay at that moment.

Cindy in NY

 

[sgtdisney]

I think the prices on airline tickets are only guaranteed when they are paid for and not until. If you are purchasing an airline ticket they will expect payment immediately. If you are putting one on hold, you don't have to pay, but the price isn't guaranteed. You can put it on a credit card and pay for it when the bill comes due....

 

[jel0511]

Also, airlines usually only hold seats for 24 hours, so your seats will be released back into the system tomorrow. As previously stated, airlines also only hold seats, not fares. So, it is possible that you call back tomorrow and the fare is no longer available. It has happened to me before. Basically, you need to pay for your tickets at the time of purchase, so if you need to wait for the refund money, you'll have to wait 10 more days to buy the airline tickets and hope fares don't rise between now and then. If you have a credit card, you can use that to buy the airline tickets and then just pay off the balance upon receipt of the bill with your refund.

 

[mom_rules]

Last trip we bought our airline ticket through a TA and were required to pay $200 per ticket plus any amounts required to preselect your seats (in our case it was $20 per person return). The balance was due 45 days prior to our departure date paid to the TA.

This time I bought our tickets online and they had to be paid by credit card in full at the time of booking.