Mistake Air Fares

[IrishPete]

AKA "Mistake" Air Fares.

I've no experience of mistake air fares

The secret to finding and booking those dirt-cheap ‘mistake airfares’

Here’s how you can take advantage of a temporary digital glitch known as a mistake fare.

www.smh.com.au

but a few years back I used Etihad points to upgrade an Economy flight for myself and partner, to Business class. The points didn't get deducted from my account. Days or even weeks later the points were still in my account. So I upgraded the next leg. And the points still didn't deduct. I think I managed to upgrade three legs of the four leg journey.

We did have a bit of trouble at the first airport, as the computers glitched at the last stage of issuing a boarding pass, and wouldn't. But they had no Economy seats to downgrade us to, and I had legitimately upgraded the first leg (I think it was the first leg), so after a bit of debate, we got our Business Class seats.

 

[Scarlett]

Suitably clickbaity article:
“Sign up to all these bloggers sites so that the secret thing is never a secret”…
Perhaps if they were more honest they’d have noted the bit about how the vast majority of mistake fares are cancelled and refunded by the originators of the mistake, much earlier in the article.

They’re fun to watch evolve on FT!
“Should I call the airline?”
“I’m going to book all these other flights and hotels so they have to honour the error fare.”
“How do I preposition to Abuja to take advantage?”
“I can’t believe they cancelled my ticket; I’m gonna sue.”

Did EY end up taking the points @IrishPete? Or has it remained ‘bank error in your favour’?

My only mistake I managed to exploit was early on when SQ were new operators of the A380. You could select exit row seats in whY and the system showed you what the charge for those seats were, but it never actually took payment.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Some airlines can and do (not) accept the fares that have been announced "in error". ie despite people turning up to the airport, after buying said fares that were published in error, too cheap, these people couldn't fly said trips.
Can't remember now, but quite a few years back, there was an airline that announced very cheap fares, and some people were fast enough to buy these fares, and the trip, in the end were not honoured by the airline.

 

[IrishPete]

Suitably clickbaity article:
“Sign up to all these bloggers sites so that the secret thing is never a secret”…
Perhaps if they were more honest they’d have noted the bit about how the vast majority of mistake fares are cancelled and refunded by the originators of the mistake, much earlier in the article.

They’re fun to watch evolve on FT!
“Should I call the airline?”
“I’m going to book all these other flights and hotels so they have to honour the error fare.”
“How do I preposition to Abuja to take advantage?”
“I can’t believe they cancelled my ticket; I’m gonna sue.”

Did EY end up taking the points @IrishPete? Or has it remained ‘bank error in your favour’?

My only mistake I managed to exploit was early on when SQ were new operators of the A380. You could select exit row seats in whY and the system showed you what the charge for those seats were, but it never actually took payment.

the SMH article claims only about 10% of mistake fares are cancelled by the airlines.

Yeah, Etihad took the points in the end...

 

[Dr Ralph]

You can be assured that the best mistake fares are never spoken about.

The first rule about mistake fares is that you don't talk about mistake fares!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Some airlines can and do (not) accept the fares that have been announced "in error". ie despite people turning up to the airport, after buying said fares that were published in error, too cheap, these people couldn't fly said trips.
Can't remember now, but quite a few years back, there was an airline that announced very cheap fares, and some people were fast enough to buy these fares, and the trip, in the end were not honoured by the airline.

There really isn’t much ‘mystery’ around mistake fares. It’s pretty much standard contract law. And principles of mistake.

It’s a game. You win some, you lose some. I’ve flown on mistake fares. Happy with that. Others haven’t gone through.mBut there’s no expectation.

Rest assured there aren’t any cases of granny or gramps turning up at the airport for their once in a lifetime trip to visit family getting cancelled. The people buying these are informed consumers and know the risks, even if they pretend they don’t.

 

[burmans]

There really isn’t much ‘mystery’ around mistake fares. It’s pretty much standard contract law. And principles of mistake.

It’s a game. You win some, you lose some. I’ve flown on mistake fares. Happy with that. Others haven’t gone through.mBut there’s no expectation.

Rest assured there aren’t any cases of granny or gramps turning up at the airport for their once in a lifetime trip to visit family getting cancelled. The people buying these are informed consumers and know the risks, even if they pretend they don’t.

And mostly they are very aware they won’t be flying well before the day of travel!

 

[Ric]

You can be assured that the best mistake fares are never spoken about.

The first rule about mistake fares is that you don't talk about mistake fares!

Surely this one you can talk about!

 

[Gold Member]

Surely this one you can talk about!
View attachment 350111

LOL. Price gouging on meth. Can we add this to McKenzie’s armoury or is that chapter done and dusted? It might have got as much traction as the “useless Qantas frequent Flyer points” argument. Still, you could get a seriously awesome points redemption if there were classic awards available - good luck finding any of those.

So would Qantas refund this fare if they found it was erroneous and needed to be repriced lower? Hell no. They’d take your money without giving it a second thought. Can we impose a cancellation/repricing/change fee on them? Doesn’t work that way I hear you say. A lot of one-way streets in the airline Industry that supposedly rely on customers for their loyalty.

 

[tdimdad]

Surely this one you can talk about!

If the status credit / status mileage was tied to revenue, you'd land a decent lifetime status in a single trip. How convenient is that...

 

[AIRwin]

China Southern to honour $1.30 flight tickets sold during glitch

Chinese carrier China Southern Airlines said on Thursday it would honor the sale of tickets priced as cheaply as $1.30 during a two-hour technical glitch on its mobile phone app and some ticket-booking platforms late on Wednesday.

www.reuters.com