How To Find Mistake Airfares And Save Hundreds
9 min readMistake airfares. Yes, they’re really a thing. In a world of instant online booking where nearly every transaction is automated, sometimes the computers (or the people operating them) glitch—to travelers’ advantage. These mistake airfares are every travel hacker’s dream. However, for the uninitiated, they can be tricky to track down and use.
What Is a Mistake Airfare?
Mistake airfares, also known as error fares or airline price glitches, occur when either an airline or an online travel agency lists the wrong price for a flight, selling the ticket for much less than it’s worth.
Usually, you can snag hundreds of dollars in savings on these tickets—sometimes 90% or more. The key is to act quickly: When the airline or online travel agency notices, the ticket price will be discontinued. Time is of the essence.
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Why Do Mistake Airfares Happen?
There are many reasons for airline price glitches: Human error, currency conversion errors, miscalculated airfares or overly aggressive revenue management automation among them.
Although many aspects of booking travel online are automated, people are still part of the process. Revenue managers price and reprice fares to maximize revenue and fill planes and sometimes they make mistakes. For example, if someone leaves out a digit when transcribing a number, the ticket price can be seriously reduced.
Currency conversion glitches have also been known to create airline price mistakes. One of the most famous includes a $4,000 United Airlines flight that was listed for $79, after a mistake was made in converting the Danish Kroner to the British Pound.
On international routes, some airlines include fuel surcharges as a component of their airfare. Calculation of fuel surcharges can be straightforward, if the flight is simple. However, on more complicated itineraries surcharges are sometimes unintentionally dropped from the fare calculation. Since fuel surcharges can sometimes be hundreds of dollars for a round-trip ticket, finding an airfare that drops the fuel surcharge can result in big savings for you. This is colloquially known as “fuel dumping”.
Computer glitches are a bit more rare but can provide a huge amount of savings. One of the most extreme examples was a 2013 return airline ticket from Hawaii to several U.S. cities for $7. Yes, $7. More common is when unexpected fluctuations in demand cause automated revenue management pricing engines to drop prices. In early 2020, as travel started to drop off dramatically, coast-to-coast round-trip flights within the U.S. could frequently be had for $49 or less.
Thanks to archaic flight-booking systems and the plethora of flights in general, error fares are inevitable. And the thing is, airlines can’t catch all of them. If you’re new to the mistake airfare game, the tricky part can be knowing what a good deal is right away. A mistake fare could still be hundreds of dollars, but the key is that it’s hundreds less than the usual fare. In general, longer-haul flights are more likely to offer more of a discount.
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Drawbacks of the Mistake Airfare
The major drawback of mistake airfares is that airlines don’t have to honor them and can cancel tickets if they’re taking too big of a loss. This is thanks to a 2015 rule passed by the Department of Labor which states that airlines don’t need to honor mistake fares.
Error fares may be honored by the airline because it can cost more to correct the problem, not to mention the public relations blowback. However, it’s important to know that when you’ve snagged a mistake fare, it might not be for keeps.
Scott Keyes of Going.com estimates that between 10% to 20% of mistake airfares are canceled, so it’s good practice to wait as long as possible before making other travel arrangements. Also, don’t book error fares for a group vacation or your honeymoon. While it’s rare for airlines to cancel mistake fares months after they’re booked, it can happen. Most often, if an airline is going to cancel tickets booked with a mistake fare, it’ll do so shortly after booking.
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How To Find Mistake Fares
1. Use Skyscanner, Google Flights or Another Online Travel Agency To Search for Flights
For the uninitiated, this is likely the hardest way to find a mistake fare. You’re basically searching for a needle in a haystack. And if you’re newer to the game you’re less likely to know how to identify mistake fares.
One of the best tools you can use to see prices on a lot of flights simultaneously is the Google Flights Explore Destinations map. This tool lets you set parameters such as “any weekend trip in the next six months” and even filter by your preferred alliance. Filter results by price to find the cheapest flights and browse from your home airport or up to four alternate airports.
However, for true travel hackers the search is part of the fun. Experts will spend hours a day looking for these flights. And if that sounds like fun for you, why not?
2. Sign Up for Price Alerts for Specific Routes
Some online travel agencies like KAYAK and Hopper offer price alerts. Hopper partnered with Capital One on its portal so you can set up alerts there. These alerts can be a useful way to be alerted to mistake or sale fares on routes you are interested in flying. When the airfare drops below a certain benchmark, you’ll automatically be notified.
On KAYAK, simply perform a flight search and select the price alert option after performing a search.
Hopper offers price alerts through its mobile app. While this may be inconvenient to those who prefer to keep their phones clear of apps, having the app means you can be immediately notified on your phone when an airfare matches one of your price notifications. To enable alerts for a trip, search for a particular destination, select your preferred dates and then Watch This Trip.
These might not necessarily be mistake airfares. To qualify for the term “mistake,” a flight is generally between 75% and 90% discounted. Another indicator of a mistake fare is if the ticket is offered to multiple cities, not just one.
3. Subscribe to a Newsletter or Feed
Sometimes the best way to find cheap airfares is to let others do the legwork for you. Several sites specialize in finding excellent sale fares and mistake airfares. Subscribing to notifications from one of these sites can be your ticket to a great airfare.
If you’re looking for free content, there are plenty of sites that publish airfare deals, which can be a useful source for finding cheap flights. Some sites, such as The Flight Deal and Fare Deal Alert, search for excellent airfares from specific U.S. airports. If your airport is covered by one of these sites, this can be a great source for finding cheap airfares. Both of these sites also publish deals on X (formerly Twitter) @TheFlightDeal and @FareDealAlert), making it easy to get notifications on your phone when a new airfare drops. Other sites like Secret Flying and Airfare Watchdog publish airfares from a wide variety of sites.
In addition to the free sites, several offer paid services. These sites usually have one or more full-time staff dedicated to discovering mistake airfares. They frequently find ridiculously cheap airfares before they hit the free sites. And, because some of these sites have more limited distribution, the deals they publish are likely to be available longer than deals published on free sites.
Going.com, which was previously Scotts Cheap Flights, offers “great itineraries from the best airlines” at up to 90% off. You can subscribe to its Premium Alerts on economy-class deals for $49 per year. If you prefer to travel in business class, it also offers Elite Alerts covering first-, business- or premium economy-class flights for $199 per year.
Finally, if you’re looking for mistake award travel airfares, check out Straight to the Points. Straight to the Points specializes in finding premium international award availability in lie-flat first and business class on multiple dates with a minimum of two bookable seats. It even shows you how to book your flight using your transferable points or points from airline partners. Straight to the Points premium membership can be had for $99 per year. It also offers a free membership that gets deal alerts 72 hours after premium members.
4. Stay Flexible
Finding a great mistake fare is one thing but using it is another. Your chances of actually flying on a mistake airfare are greater if you have a wide degree of flexibility in your travel desires. You’re much more likely to snag a mistake airfare to a region instead of a specific destination. If you have a list of places you want to visit in several regions, you increase your likelihood of snagging a mistake fare.
Keep that flexibility when it comes to arrival and departure airports, too. If you’re willing to drive an extra hour to an airport or pair a short flight to a bigger hub, you’ll increase your likelihood of finding a mistake fare. However, just make sure to do the math before you book, as paying $200 to get to an airport for a flight you’ve only saved $300 on might not be worth it overall.
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Bottom Line
Yes, there are mistake fares. With diligence, flexibility and a bit of luck, you could be taking to the skies for less than you can imagine. You just need to know where to look.
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