Should you pay for a refundable ticket? Most of the time the honest answer is no, because the premium the airline charges for it is usually bigger than the risk you're insuring against. A refundable fare and a non-refundable one often put you in the exact same seat on the exact same flight. The only difference is what happens if your plans fall apart, and you're being asked to pay for that difference up front, every trip, whether you use it or not.
What you're actually buying
A refundable ticket buys one thing: the right to cancel and get your money back, no questions asked. That's genuinely useful if your plans are shaky. The catch is the price. On a lot of routes the refundable version costs a few hundred dollars more than the cheapest fare for the same flight, and sometimes it's double. So the real question isn't "do I want flexibility," because everyone does. It's "would I pay $300 today to protect a $250 ticket I might not cancel?" Written out like that, the answer is usually no.
There's also a middle ground most people forget. A standard non-refundable ticket isn't a total loss if you cancel. On many airlines you get a travel credit for what you paid, minus any fare difference when you rebook. You lose the flexibility to walk away with cash, but not the money itself. And if you book and change your mind fast, the 24-hour cancellation rule often lets you undo it free inside the first day.
When the premium is worth it
Sometimes it is. If you're booking a trip that genuinely might not happen, a work commitment that isn't confirmed, a date that hinges on someone else, and the credit-and-rebook path won't work because you'd cancel outright, then paying for the refund can be the cheaper mistake to avoid. The same goes for an expensive long-haul fare where the premium is a small slice of a large number instead of most of it.
The trap is buying refundability by reflex on a cheap ticket you'll almost certainly use, which is the same reflex behind the hidden costs a sticker price leaves out. Pay for what your actual plans need, not for a worst case you're not really in.
What we do, and what we don't
We don't sell you insurance, and we're not going to nudge you toward the pricey fare. What we do is send you a few real options every morning so you can see the plain fare next to what a flexible one would cost, and decide for yourself whether the extra is worth it. Usually you'll find it isn't.