(For reasons that will become clear, can I ask that you apply here a little of that glorious patience a fly fisherman applies when tying flies? This post will take a few minutes to read more or less. But it may well have you landing more low-cost— even no-cost—upgrades from coach… thanks to a unique way of thinking.)
The constantly evolving phenomenon—farenomenon—has been riveting our analyst’s attention ever since they began in late 2012.
New, incredibly cheap fares have been released since then.
But fleetingly.
Fares with very short lifespans, a day or two maybe. Sometimes just hours.
So fleeting are these fares we call them flash fares.
And when these incredibly cheap fares allow an easy, sometimes free, upgrade we call them Flash EasyUp Fares.
‘Incredibly cheap’ is not an exaggeration. We often don’t believe these fares when we see them. It’s easy to mistake them for Mistake Fares—especially some of the here-today-gone-today ones—yet they are totally legitimate.
But, as I hope you know by now, our aim is to alert members to them as soon as the truffle pigs trained so well by our analysts discover them.
But here’s the rub: Those fare-aware members among you who note these fares typically think, “Not for me, my travel plans aren’t completely nailed down yet; and there’s not enough time to figure out the exact itinerary, today”.
Enter a different mentality.
One that allows you to think again. And again. And again.
I call it The Mayfly Mentality.
Think of Flash Fares — Flash EasyUp Fares, especially — as the most ephemeral of fares. As mayflies.
Mayflies are insects of the order of—thanks Wikipedia—Ephemeroptera (from the Greek εφήμερος, ephemeros = “short-lived” — literally “lasting a day” “daily” or “day-long”).
When we alert you to a Flash EasyUp Fare, think of it as an ephemeral mayfly.
And think also…
May fly. As in might fly. “I might fly”.
What allows The Mayfly Mentality — the “I might fly” mindfulness that you apply to those Mayfly Fares — is a parallel paradigm.
It’s a bargain booking option that is splendidly generous when used with Flash EasyUp Fares. It’s called different names by different airlines: the “Time to Think” Option, “Time to Decide”, “Flight Reservation with a price guarantee” and “Farelock”. And each airline has different conditions.
But essentially it’s the same thing: a booking option that allows you to develop and apply The Mayfly Mindset.
Here’s how it works.
For as little as $10, or maybe 20 or 30, you can lock-in a Flash EasyUp Fare (and many other fares too) with the option to purchase it 48 hours to 14 days later depending on the airline. During that time you can do many things, according to your personal circumstances.
If the fare kind of fits with your travel plans, great. Either way, you have time to Upgrade Your Itinerary Options, by locking other options which might offer a better schedule, a more suitable origin or destination airport, a more comfortable seat, a better price—or all of the above.
With all that low-cost time you’ve gained, you can look around more without so much pressure to commit one way or another.
If you have no travel plans, and the Flash EasyUp seems too good to pass up, you can make travel plans.
You are buying time, literally, but for peanuts.
Like the wisest trout in the stream you grab your mayfly (your mayfly fare) but you don’t get hooked.
The time that this way of thinking, and acting, allows you to buy is 2 to 14 times as much the US Department of Transportation’s 24-hour refund mandate. That lets you cancel a purchased ticket within 24 hours of booking, if purchased more than seven days before departure. But it’s not nearly as useful as other options available with The Mayfly Mentality.
Buying time is what allows you to take advantage of the Flash EasyUp Fare phenomenon.
There’s more on this in our special report: Look. Lock! Book?… including a chart on the six lock-option friendly airlines and the little-known nuances that you might not hear about elsewhere, which might otherwise make all the difference.