How I Saved $50 in Five Minutes with Capital One Price Drop Protection

One of the hardest things about travel is that the pricing of flights fluctuates. Sure, Amazon and other retailers also utilize “dynamic pricing” or “revenue optimization,” but nowhere is it more evident than in air travel. Book too late, and a swing of a few percentage points might mean a difference of hundreds of dollars in airfare. Or, if you book too early, you might gain some peace of mind, but watch helplessly as prices drop. Which is what makes Capital One’s Price Drop Protection so nifty: for up to ten days after you book your flight, if the price drops, you’ll get a refund of up to $50 as a travel credit.

I personally used Capital One’s Price Drop Protection, and had a pretty positive experience.

Here’s How it Works

For starters, you’ll need to book through Capital One’s Travel portal.

Secondly, you’ll also need to book when Capital One’s algorithm (powered by Hopper) tells you that this is the cheapest price you’ll get.

Then, for up to ten days after you book your ticket, Capital One says that they’ll monitor your flight and automatically issue a refund if the price drops.

My recommendation is to also keep an alert running on Google Flights and then take a screengrab of the lower price that can be provided to Capital One’s customer support team, if needed.

My Experience

I booked a roundtrip flight from Tel Aviv to Newark for $660 on Capital One, after they recommended that this was the lowest the prices would go.

Less than a day later, I saw the same itinerary on United’s site for $611. I took a screengrab, which I didn’t end up needing, but was definitely helpful to have in my back pocket.

I called up Capital One’s Travel department [reachable at (844) 422-6922‬], and spoke to an agent for around sixty seconds. I’m not sure if they also checked the price on their end, but they seemed to take it on faith, and I was issued a $49 credit several days later. Not bad for around five minutes of effort!

Coupled with Capital One’s 5x back on travel (good for ~$30 worth of miles, in this case), the additional benefit of Price Drop protection made this an even sweeter deal.

Summary

Last year, the Capital One Venture X came out of the gate swinging — offering 2x back everywhere, a $300 travel credit, 10k miles on your cardmember anniversary, 5x back on flights + 10x back on hotels, when booked via the Capital One Travel Portal. Capital One’s Price Drop protection is yet another vote in favor of using a Venture X as your daily driver.

Price Drop Protection:

 👍 Pros:

• Automatic Monitoring (though Reddit says it’s not perfect)
• Painless refunds
• Cashback is credited quickly

 👎 Cons:

• Monitoring is limited to ten days
• Capped at $50 😬