UK tourists heading abroad this summer can save hundreds on your flight by snagging a “mistake” fare. A mistake fare is when airlines or travel agents accidentally list the wrong price for a flight and might happen when airline staff accidentally leave out a digit.
They might also use a wrong far code to display the prices, allowing travellers to grab reduced fares. Zach Griff, a senior reporter at The Point Guys, told HuffPost : “Mistake fares happen when airlines incorrectly file the price of a given flight. One of the recent mistake fares I found was a $700 round-trip ticket in Air France first class from Algeria to New York.
“That ticket typically retails for over $10,000, so it’s pretty clear that something was wrong with how it was pricing.” The expert added: “Mistake fares can happen for many reasons, but some of the common reasons are currency conversion errors with travel agencies that incorrectly convert the fare into the local currency.
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“It can also be errors from revenue management analysts who potentially miss a digit when inputting a fare or file a fare for business class at the price of economy.” The fares have become less common over the years but CAN still happen, experts have said.
Nick Ewen, senior editorial director at The Points Guy, told HuffPost: “There’s not a definitive line between what makes for a ‘deal’ vs. a ‘mistake’ in this context, but usually a mistake fare is orders of magnitude lower than normal,” Ewen said.
“For example, a $1,000 round-trip flight from the U.S. to Europe in business class could be a deal if it’s on a Tuesday in mid-January to Poland.” He said: “A pricing algorithm may be incorrectly calibrated to drop prices precipitously when demand drops.
“Or a currency conversion error may display the right number but in the wrong currency ― e.g., a flight that should be 5,000 U.S. dollars could show as 5,000 Hong Kong dollars, which is less than 650 U.S. dollars.”