How to fly cheaper thanks to airline mistakes
Travellers are scoring flights that are thousands of dollars cheaper than usual thanks to simple mistakes and errors made by airlines.
A “mistake fare” is when an airline sells a ticket at a price they did not intend to sell it at. When the mistake is picked up by customers, airlines will usually honour the price – despite not being obligated to by law.
There are a number of reasons why mistakes happen – human error such as when someone types in the wrong price. It could also be a currency conversion mistake or system error.
Last year, Virgin Australia advertised a round trip from Melbourne to Paris for $607. A number of customers purchased the tickets before it was quickly taken down. The same flight is currently selling for $2231.
Most airlines will admit to the error, rather taking on a small loss instead of risking reputation.
However, it’s still a risk to buy “mistake fares” as airlines can cancel them at short notice.
But it just goes to show pays to research your airfare. Use sites like Skyscanner, Google Flights and Kayak to try and find the best deal.