Errorfares are by far my favorite way to travel! Why? Because you will see the world for much cheaper than one will normally pay and it’s the perfect opportunity to go off the beaten path and explore destinations you otherwise wouldn’t visit!

But you might wonder what are those errorfares exactly? And, are they really that good? In this post I would like to tell you more about it! I will start with explaining what errorfares are and how they can appear. After that I will give tips on how to find one and how to book one.

What is an errorfare?
Errorfares are actually exactly what you suspect they are when you look at the name: literally a mis-priced or mistake fare for a flight ticket. Imagine a roundtrip ticket from Brussels to New York would normally costs around €400 to €700 euro. If this same ticket is suddenly priced at €79 (which really happens) it sounds too good to be true right? The answer is NO, it is a mistake, a mistake by the airline. And as long as this mistake is not corrected you can book it for this price and most of the times receive a confirmed booking (more on the risk of this later!).

Example of an errorfare, more on this specific errorfare here

How do they appear?
This question cannot be answered for sure, but there are a few possibilities. First of all human error is probably the most common cause. Pricing flight tickets is done by both computers and humans and as most traditional airlines use very old and not frequently updated systems a human error is easily made.

Maybe you have seen it before, maybe not, but the price of a flight tickets consists of certain “layers”, which together form the final ticket price quoted for this specific flight ticket. If you take the following fare between Spain and Canada with a basic rate of 178,98 dollars and add all the charges and fees you end up with a final price of $712,68.

Can you imagine what happens when the 416 dollar fuel surcharge is entered into an old-fashioned system wrongly and appears on the ticket as 4.16 dollar? It will cause a huge price difference and create a great errorfare. This is known as a fuel dump (a very technical story I will not talk about today) and results in an errorfare. The base fare can also be wrong, resulting in an errorfare.

Most of the times the mandatory taxes fees and charges (in the bottom half of the table) are generated automatically and are not altered by computers or humans. Therefore these are always added to a ticket and generally cannot result in an errorfare.

Is it illegal?
No. It is not.

An errorfare is the result of a mistake by the airline that gets published online and is actually for sale. At that certain moment the published fare is the contractual price the buyer (passenger) agrees to pay to the seller (airline) for a service (transportation between A and B).

However, most countries have laws and most airlines have terms and conditions. Terms and conditions of an airline, supported by local law, could be that if a buyer finds a price too good to be true the buyer should suspect it to be a mistake and the contract (flight ticket) can be void. This does happen sometimes, but most of the times before the booking is confirmed with an e-ticket. So far I have booked around 10 errorfares and none have been cancelled AFTER booking and paying (fingers crossed for the future). But always keep in mind this might happen, more on this under tips and tricks.

How to find AND book an errorfare?
In order to book an errorfare you first need to find one. As it is really hard to find an errorfare yourself I would suggest following one of these “errorfare hunter” websites and checking with them regularly or setting alerts in order to be notified when an errorfare appears:
– SecretFlying (international)
– Fly4free (mostly european)
– Vakantiepiraten (dutch)
– Tickettipper (dutch)

After you found an active errorfare (when the deal is gone the website will change it to EXPIRED) it is important to act immediately. The nice thing about errorfares is that it mostly includes a lot of travel dates in the upcoming months. Mostly the usual peak seasons (summer and christmas/NYE) are not part of the errorfare as these fares are priced separately. Sometimes you might be lucky and find the errorfare to be valid during peak season as well! The golden rule with errorfares literally is: time is money! After you spotted one book as fast as possible, try to find out within hours or even minutes if you are able to travel on any of the dates and book it, with a creditcard, right away. In my experience errorfares are online somewhere between 1 hour and 12 hours, sometimes airlines fix their mistakes quickly but the next day the mistake emerges again on a different route!

After you succesfully entered your credit card information and received a booking number: congratulations, you just booked a real errorfare! As mentioned before, airlines might cancel errorfares, although this rarely happens after a confirmed e-ticket has been issued, it has happend in the past. Therefore my recommendation is to always wait a few days after you receive an e-ticket before continuing with other arrangements, such as hotel bookings!

Tip and tricks
– Try to book with a credit card, in case the airline cancels, a refund is obtained easiest via a credit card, and the payment is guaranteed by your credit card company.
– Flight tickets are mostly personal and non-transferable, thus always make sure you enter the correct dates and names before confirming the booking. A mistake from your side is as easily made as a mistake from the airline side..
– Never notify the airline, if you let them know about their mistake, they might correct it and cancel your ticket before it is issued. If you have questions, ask them after the deal is expired and after your e-ticket is issued.
– Have a digital agenda so you can quickly check anywhere when you are able to travel! This avoids booking an errorfare too quickly and finding out the next day you are not able to travel.
– If you book directly with an American airline, or on an American website you will most probably have a 24-hour free of charge cancellation option! If this is the case, you can book an errorfare right away and check if you are able to travel later.
*IMPORTANT: ALWAYS check if the terms and conditions of the cancellation option*
– Be flexible.. and sometimes just force yourself to take the risk and dive into the unknown by just booking this cheap ticket and think about it later!

My own experience with errorfares
Now that I have given you the most relevant information and tips and tricks about errorfares you might wonder what kind of incredible deals I was able to book recently. Hereby an overview of my latest booked and confirmed errorfare deals:
– Lima, roundtrip from Amsterdam for €198 (regular price €600)
– Miami, roundtrip from Amsterdam for €139 (regular price €400)
– Azores, roundtrip from Copenhagen in KLM BUSINESS CLASS €150 (regular €1600)
– Hawaii, roundtrip from Scotland for €290 (regular €900)
– Miami to Copenhagen oneway for €40 (regular €129)

All these tickets (with the exception of the last one) included checked luggage, on-board food and drinks as well as guaranteed connections. Did this article convince you to book an errorfare for your next trip?

Example of an errorfare. The bookings were cancelled by the airline a few hours later, e-tickets were never issued.

First one to get new updates
Liked this post and want to be the first one to get an update when I post new tricks/tips or trip reports? Subscribe to my blog by entering your e-mailaddress on the right!