Optiontown: What is It?

As some of you already know, I follow The Flight Deal religiously.  Every day around 3pm, they send out an email with that day’s best flight deals from select cities.  Washington, DC, is one of their focus cities, and since I live in that area, it’s a no-brainer why I pay attention to what they find.  Early in 2014, The Flight Deal posted a roundtrip flight from Washington, DC to Leon/Guanajuato, Mexico via Mexico City on Aeromexico for $206 per person.  There were similar deals to other areas in Mexico, but this one stuck out in particular because my wife has family from that region and it’s an area that intrigued both of us.  We decided to go for it when we saw that the $206 price was available for Presidents’ Day Weekend/Valentine’s Day.  So for just over $400, we could both fly roundtrip to Mexico.  Pretty sweet deal if you ask me!

Enter Optiontown.

A few days after I booked the flights, I got a call from a 617 area code.  Since I grew up near Boston, I decided to answer because I thought it might be someone I know.  Turns out that the call was from a company called Optiontown.  When he said “Optiontown,” bells went off in my head, so I decided to google Optiontown while he was explaining his side of the story.  After I did some quick research, I decided to hear him out.

About Optiontown

From the Optiontown website, here is a brief glimpse at what they offer:

Optiontown is a pioneer in the world of travel options. Our vision is to develop unique and innovative travel options that help to optimize value for both travelers and travel providers. Built using our patented technologies, our revolutionary product portfolio includes the Upgrade Travel Option (UTo, pronounced as ‘You Too’), the Empty Seat Option (ESo), the Flexibility Reward Option (FRo), the Multiple Booking Option (MBo), the Preferred Flight Option (PFo), the Preferred Seat Option (PSo), the Lounge Access Option (LAo) and the Xtra Baggage Option (XBo).

For our particular trip, the customer service rep was offering UTo.  We booked in economy, and Optiontown was offering to upgrade us both to Aeromexico’s Clase Premier on all legs of our trip for an additional $236 per person.  So for a little more than double the original ticket, we could potentially be upgraded to first class.  Not only that, but should we get upgraded, automatic Aeromexico lounge access in Mexico City would be part of the deal, and since the layover in Mexico City was over 2 hours in both directions, it would be worth it to get lounge access for complimentary drinks, snacks, and clean bathrooms.  I should note that getting upgraded was not a certainty at this point.  The deal is, you agree to pay up front.  You will then be notified 4-72 hours before your flight if you’ve been upgraded or not.  If you get upgraded, you’ve already paid; if not, you get reimbursed.  I agreed to the terms, and set the deal in motion.

At this point, the only thing left to do was wait for the email telling us whether or not we would be upgraded.  On Feb 10, 4 days before our flight, we found out that we would be upgraded for the IAD-MEX-BJX legs (the upgrade window for the return flight had not opened yet).  This was earlier than I was expecting to find out.  Great news!  Same thing on the way back.  On Feb 13, again 4 days before our return flight, we were told we would be upgraded to Clase Premier and our new boarding passes reflected these changes.  After a quick search on the ITA Matrix, Clase Premier flights on this same route priced out at around $1400 per person, so I was more than happy with the $442 per person that we spent for this trip.

Aeromexico is just one of a dozen or so airline partners to do business with Optiontown.  The full list includes:

• Adria Airways
• Aeromexico
• Air Baltic
• Air Europa
• Air India
• Air AsiaX
• Biman Bangladesh
• Corsair
• Cyprus Airways
• Estonian Air (UTo not available)
• Firefly (UTo not available)
• InselAir
• SAS
• SpiceJet (UTo not available)
• Ukraine International
• Vietnam Airlines
• Wideroe (UTo not available)

If you’re flying on one of these airlines, and you’re not contacted by Optiontown, it may be worth heading over to their website to see what the pricing options are for either an upgrade or one of the other options they offer, such as the Empty Seat Option or Xtra Baggage Option.  In some cases it might not be worth it based on length of flights, airport amenities, etc., but I’d recommend at least checking it out!