Buy an unused flight

Which airlines let you buy another passenger's ticket?

The ones that publish a price for changing the passenger. Where a carrier prints a fee it does these routinely; where it prints nothing, it usually refuses outright.

Ryanair charges 115 euros or pounds per passenger to change a name online and 160 through its contact centre or an airport desk. The online route closes 24 hours before departure; the assisted route stays open until 2 hours before.Source: Ryanair — Ryanair help centre — changing passenger details and the table of fees (checked 2026-08-29)

Several European low-cost carriers sit in the first group. Most legacy and US carriers sit in the second, permitting a spelling correction on an existing name and refusing a genuine change of passenger.

Do not reason from a general rule about low-cost versus legacy. Groupings shift, individual fare classes are excluded even at carriers that otherwise allow changes, and the name-change fee table keeps the current published figures with each row dated.

What does a flight name change cost, and when does it close?

Two numbers decide every flight purchase, and both can kill it: what the change costs, and when the carrier stops accepting one. Both are published by the carrier itself.

easyJet charges 60 pounds per passenger per flight to change a name online and 65 through customer services, with both closing 2 hours before departure and airport changes possible later. Changing the name and reselling the ticket are two different things in its terms: the name change is permitted and priced, while the same section states you cannot resell your ticket and reserves the right to cancel a booking without a refund where easyJet reasonably believes it was resold or made available for resale, including through an online marketplace.Source: easyJet — easyJet fees and charges (checked 2026-08-30)Source: easyJet — easyJet Terms and Conditions, Passenger changes (checked 2026-08-31)

• Fees are usually charged per passenger and often per flight, so a return trip for a couple can mean four separate charges.
• Online and assisted channels close at different times, and which closes first differs by carrier — check the specific one rather than assuming.
• Some fare classes are excluded even at carriers that otherwise permit transfers, so the fare matters as much as the airline.
• Add the whole fee to the asking price before comparing against booking fresh, or the comparison flatters the listing.

What are my rights if the flight is later cancelled?

The same as any other passenger's on that flight. Once the booking is in your name a transferred ticket is not a second-class ticket, and you deal with the airline directly.

Compensation of 250, 400 or 600 euros by distance is set by Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004, and it is a long way from automatic. It applies only to flights within the regulation's territorial scope, on a confirmed reservation. Article 5 removes it entirely at 14 days' notice, and removes it at shorter notice where the airline offered rerouting inside the stated time limits. It also falls away where the airline proves extraordinary circumstances that all reasonable measures would not have avoided, and it can be halved after sufficiently prompt rerouting.Source: EUR-Lex — Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, Articles 5 and 7 (checked 2026-08-29)

Read the carrier's disruption policy before you travel, because those entitlements only help if you know to claim them at the time.

Before the transfer completes the position is different: the purchase is unfinished, the booking is not yet yours, and anything that goes wrong runs through the marketplace's dispute process instead.

What happens to my money between paying and travelling?

The buyer's card is charged in full at checkout. The payment is split immediately by Stripe: the seller's share goes straight into the seller's own Stripe account, and SpareHolidays receives only its fee. SpareHolidays does not hold the seller's money, but it does control the payout date — the seller cannot withdraw their share to their bank until the confirmation window closes. The seller is paid out only after the buyer confirms the transfer, or the confirmation window closes without a dispute. If the transfer never happens, or the purchase is cancelled before that point, the buyer is refunded.

The seller reaches the money after you confirm the handover, or after the confirmation window closes with no dispute raised — not when you pay. So a seller who abandons it does not get paid, and you are not left chasing somebody for money already banked.

The Terms set the payout clock: for a booking with travel dates the seller is scheduled to be paid 2 calendar days after the buyer's trip ends, and for a voucher without dates 7 days after the buyer confirms the transfer.Source: SpareHolidays — SpareHolidays Terms — payment handling and fund release (checked 2026-08-29)

Where a transfer goes wrong the outcome is decided under those Terms rather than automatically. A transfer that never starts and times out is cancelled and refunded; once it has progressed or a dispute is open, the evidence is reviewed and the result can be a full refund, a partial one, or release to the seller. Keep everything the seller sends you.

Questions buyers ask