What is an Error Fare?

An Error Fare (or Mistake Fare) is when a flight is unintentionally priced much cheaper than the airline intended it to be.

Secret Flying prides itself in being the number one source for Error Fares.

What causes an Error Fare?

There are three main causes behind an Error Fare:

• Self-dump
• OTA glitch
• Human error

Self-dump

A self-dump refers to when the fuel surcharge component of the ticket is missing (or “dumped”). These dumps typically occur when more than one airline is present on the same ticket.

OTA glitch

An OTA glitch is when an Online Travel Agency’s website has suffered a glitch pricing tickets way cheaper than normal.

Human error

This is somewhat self-explanatory. Although much of the airline reservation system is automated, humans are required to upload ticket fares and set the prices.

This human intervention can sometimes lead to human error.

Please click this link if you would like to read more on What causes an Error Fare?

Are these Error Fares honoured?

Absolutely. It does, however, often depend on the airline you’ll be flying with.

The best airlines such as Qatar Airways and Emirates are far more likely to honour such mistakes as they care more about retaining their high customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.

Of the 450 Error Fares we’ve published, approximately 85% of them have been honoured, resulting in thousands of super happy Secret Flying members!!

I’ve booked an Error Fare, now what?

First of all, congratulations. Second, be patient.

It’s always best to delay making non-refundable plans for a few weeks. This is because airlines in the past have taken up to three weeks to decide whether to honour an Error Fare.

If after three weeks your trip is still confirmed when logging in to the airline’s ‘Manage my booking’ section of their website, then it’s very likely your Error Fare has been honoured.

It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on the airline’s social media page for any announcements, like this for example.

Is there anything else I should know?

Remember, if an Error Fare is not honoured, you will receive a full refund from the airline or OTA you booked with.

A good recommendation we have is to book your Mistake Fare with a credit card.

This is so in the rare instance that the deal is not honoured by the airline, you have little trouble in getting your funds back.

Credit card companies are very effective in refunding your money when you have not received the agreed goods/services.

How do I find an Error Fare?

Now this is what we specialise in.

Here at Secret Flying, we’ve built an incredibly powerful piece of software that allows us to search through millions of flights each day. We keep our systems running 24/7 so we’re always the first to know when an Error Fare is available.

Because there are no patterns to Error Fares, there’s no way of knowing when Secret Flying will find the next one.

So how do make sure I don’t miss the next Error Fare?

To ensure you never miss a Secret Flying Error Fare, register for free to receive instant flight deal alerts straight to your inbox. Click here for more info.