MakeMyTrip has launched Price Drop Protection on flight bookings, an add-on that pays travellers back if the fare falls after they book, BW Travel reported on 28 September 2026. It costs Rs 229 per person on domestic flights and Rs 349 per person on international flights, on one-way and round-trip bookings.
The launch shows India’s largest OTA changing what it sells. The ticket is now only part of the purchase. Around it sits a growing set of paid add-ons, each one covering a risk the traveller once carried alone after payment went through: a trip called off, a flight moved and, from this week, a fare that drops.
Price Drop Protection: from selling seats to selling certainty
MakeMyTrip’s protection add-ons already covered cancellation and schedule changes. Price Drop Protection extends them to fare moves after booking. Each risk now carries its own price at checkout, and each price is ancillary revenue for the platform rather than for the airline.
Before this, a cheaper fare after payment was simply money lost. A buyer who expected prices to fall had one option: hold off and hope the fare did not climb instead. That gamble now has a fixed cost, starting at Rs 229 a head, and the reason to wait goes away.
“Travellers should not have to choose between booking early and worrying that fares may fall later. Price Drop Protection lets them book when it works for them, with the reassurance that if the fare drops, they are protected,” said Raj Rishi Singh, COO of Flights, Corporate, GCC and Marketing at MakeMyTrip.
How the cover pays out
The refund has a ceiling, set out in MakeMyTrip’s terms and conditions. A domestic one-way passenger gets the fare difference or Rs 2,500, whichever is lower. The limit is Rs 5,000 on a domestic round trip, Rs 3,000 on an international one-way and Rs 6,000 on an international round trip.
Cover runs from booking until 6 hours before the scheduled departure. Fare changes in those final 6 hours do not count. MakeMyTrip alerts the traveller when a drop occurs. A claim can be lodged on the platform only after the trip is flown, and within 30 days of the scheduled departure date. The refund goes back to the original payment method.
MakeMyTrip (India) Private Limited provides the protection. Across Assist Private Limited provides assistance services but not the protection itself.
What does not count as a drop
The terms rule out several kinds of cheaper fare. Flash sales and promotional offers do not count. Neither do coupon codes, cashback, loyalty or reward fares, non-public fares or system errors. A lower fare caused by a cut in government taxes, airport charges or regulatory fees is excluded too.
Any change to the trip voids the cover: a rescheduled or cancelled flight, or an amended booking, including a new date. Charter and non-scheduled flights cannot be protected.
BW Travel says the feature is “currently, in a testing phase” and that “among those who opted for it, a large number of people saw a price drop on both domestic and international flights”. It gives no figure. Moneycontrol also reported the launch on 28 September.
Who it hits
Airline revenue managers feel it first. A buyer holding the cover has less reason to sit on the fence, so demand that once waited for a cheaper seat can book earlier. Airline flash sales and promotional fares fall outside the cover, so they still pull buyers on the airline’s own terms.
Rival Indian OTAs, among them ixigo, Cleartrip and EaseMyTrip, now face a competitor that earns a fee from fare movement itself. The contest at checkout shifts from who shows the lowest fare to who takes the most risk off the buyer, and how many protection products a traveller will pay for on a single ticket.
For OTAs and airlines elsewhere in APAC, the terms read as a ready template: a flat fee per person, a cap by route type, a cut-off 6 hours before departure and claims only after travel. Hotels and DMCs that package Indian flights should note that the cover applies to the flight alone.
MakeMyTrip Group CEO Rajesh Magow takes the WiT Singapore main stage on 1 October, from 10:10 to 10:30, in a session titled “Building for the Next Billion: The India Story”.
Key takeaway
OTAs with a large flight business should test a fare-protection add-on now, and MakeMyTrip’s terms already show where to draw the lines: no promotions, a cut-off before departure and claims after travel. Airline revenue teams in India should ask OTA partners whether early bookings rise on routes where the cover sells. Hotels and DMCs can wait, because the cover changes when a flight is bought, not what the traveller spends on arrival. We will be watching whether Rajesh Magow takes the add-on story further in Singapore.
