What is a mistake fare?
A mistake fare, or error fare, is a flight priced far below what the airline intended: a long-haul return for the price of a short hop, or a business class seat priced like economy. It's a real ticket, sold through the airline or a travel agent, at a price someone got wrong.
They are different from sales. A sale is a discount the airline chose to offer, usually 10 to 40% off for a few days. A mistake fare is often half price or less, appears without warning, and is usually gone within hours of being noticed.
Why do airlines publish them?
Airfares are built from thousands of moving parts: base fares, surcharges, taxes, currencies and the rules for combining them. Most mistakes come from one of these:
- A typing error. A fare loaded with a digit missing, or in the wrong currency.
- A currency slip. A fare converted at the wrong rate when it's sold in another country.
- A missing surcharge. Many airlines add a large surcharge on top of the base fare. Leave it off and the ticket costs a fraction of normal.
- Systems that disagree. A travel site combines fares, cabins or routes in a way the airline never meant to allow.
Will the airline honour it?
Often, but not always. Airlines and travel agents can cancel tickets sold at an obvious error, and whether they have to honour one depends on where you bought it and the airline's conditions of carriage. If a booking is cancelled, you are normally refunded what you paid.
So the risk is rarely the fare itself. It's everything else you booked around it, which is why the steps below matter.
How to book a mistake fare safely
- Book quickly. Once a mistake is spotted it's usually fixed within hours. If the trip works for you, book first and plan after.
- Check the details before you pay. Names, dates, stops, baggage and the return flight. An error in one part of a fare can hide a 20-hour layover or a missing checked bag.
- Make sure you have a ticket, not just a booking. Look for an e-ticket number (13 digits on most airlines) and check that your booking shows on the airline's own website.
- Hold off on everything else. Don't book non-refundable hotels, tours or connecting flights until the ticket is issued and a few days have passed without a cancellation.
- Pay by credit card. It's the simplest way to get your money back if something goes wrong.
- Book with the airline when you can. Changes and refunds are simpler direct, though some mistake fares only exist at one travel agent.
How to catch one
Mistake fares turn up at any hour, on any route, and are gone before most people hear about them. Searching on the off chance doesn't work; you need something watching for you.
That's what Farepop does. It checks fares from your home airports several times a day, compares each one with what that trip usually costs on the same dates, and checks the ones that stand out again before telling you. When a fare is at least 25% below normal, you get an alert with the price, the dates and the size of the drop. The biggest drops, mistakes included, are the easiest to spot.
