For many, the idea of a cheap getaway sounds too good to be true but one mother from Leeds has proved otherwise. By using a travel resale site, she managed to secure a dream holiday to Thailand at nearly 75% off the original cost. This growing trend of buying “unused”, non-refundable holidays is giving people access to premium trips for a fraction of the price.
Sometimes people book holidays but then can’t go. Maybe they get sick or their plans change. Many of these bookings are non-refundable, which means they’d normally lose all their money. That’s where holiday resale websites come in.
Sites like SpareFare, PlansChange, Roomer, and Travel Transfer let people sell their unused trips and for buyers, that means grabbing a fully paid-for holiday at a big discount.
Samina Ahmed, a single mother from Leeds and former IT engineer, says she gets most of her holidays through SpareFare.
Her best deal was a week long all-inclusive trip to Thailand that originally cost £3,500 ended up costing her only £895. That’s a saving of over 75%.
Because of these cheap deals, she’s been able to take her young son on holidays all over the world. She says he’s already been on more trips than most adults.
Samina Ahmed told the Wall Street Journal that these deals have allowed her to take her toddler on “more holidays than most people have in a lifetime.”
Describing her trip to Thailand, she said: “It was a week—I wish that had been longer.”
From beach escapes to family adventures, the flexibility of these platforms means travel dreams no longer have to come with sky-high price tags especially if you’re open to last minute trips and flexible dates.
Name change rules vary between airlines and hotels, so it’s important to check before purchasing a resold trip.
For example, Samina Ahmed recently faced a problem when trying to use a package holiday to Spain because the airline wouldn’t allow her son’s name to be added since he is a minor. Fortunately, SpareFare promptly refunded her, and she has continued booking trips through the site.