The service enables customers to ‘Lock’ flight fare for a minimum fee and book later at the same price.

Goibibo, one of India’s leading online travel brand, has launched an industry-first feature to help customers lock flight fares up to seven days while they firm up their travel plans. The service enables customers to reserve their seats for a bare minimum fee without paying for the actual price of the ticket upfront and securing flyers against any price hike by allowing them to purchase the ticket at the same locked-in price later.

With an aim to make travel choices easier and more flexible, the unique  service helps address a major dilemma faced by travellers – should they wait or book flights and consequently risk fare hike. Price lock provides more time and fare hike protection as customer takes a final call on scheduling travel. The service allows customers to lock airfares for one, three or seven days for a nominal fee – that later gets adjusted into the full price of the ticket at the time of the final purchase.

For instance, a customer purchases three day Price Lock at INR 180 on December 17 for travel between Delhi to Bengaluru on December 24. On the said day, the air ticket was priced at INR 6000. However, on December 20 when the flyer returns to confirm the booking, the new price of the ticket is INR 7000. In this scenario, the flyer will benefit from reserving the fare by only paying INR 5820 [INR 6000 – INR 180 (Price Lock Fee) = INR 5820] instead of the new airfare [INR 7000].

Commenting on the rollout of Price Lock, Saujanya Shrivastava, Chief Operating Officer – Flights SBU shared, “We are always looking at ways in which we can make the flight booking experience delightful. The Price Lock feature is indeed an innovative and relevant solution that will appeal to those customers who cannot book right away but would like to seek some form of price protection until they firm up their decision to travel. Today, travellers are spending more time weighing multiple parameters before finally making a booking and increasingly expect flexible options so that they can plan better. Our new offering Price Lock is a useful way to get more time and save money as one can lock a favourable airfare for up to seven days while they make an informed decision to travel.”

At the backend, Price Lock leverages data and predictive analytics solutions to evaluate and calculate the air lock fee for a specific booking. The algorithm also takes into account various other parameters such as past booking behaviours and preferences, traffic on a specific route and sector, seasonality, advance purchase period etc. while proposing the Price Lock offer on a given itinerary.

Available on android and iOS, Price Lock has been rolled-out for domestic travel currently and in the subsequent phases, the company plans to expand the offering to outbound travel services as well.