How savvy travellers save HUNDREDS of pounds on flights by hunting out ‘error fares’ – and you can do it too
Tom Church, founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, flew to Mexico for just £197 return - a saving of more than £600 off the average fare
SAVVY travellers have found a way save HUNDREDS of pounds on flights and travel the world by hunting "error" fares.
Tom Church, founder of , flew to Mexico for £197 return - a massive £600 saving on the normal fare and he even booked tickets to Denmark for just £1.
Error fares crop up when an airline or booking website makes a pricing mistake.
With thousands of flights every day, it’s inevitable that blunders happen and sometimes the discounts can be as much as 90 per cent.
The 26-year-old self-confessed bargain hunter told The Sun Online: "An error fare is when an airline makes a mistake with its pricing. You can save hundreds of pounds. Often the savings are more than 90 per cent".
He claims that travel addicts gather in secret online forums and share error fares with each other.
To avoid airlines finding out about the mistakes, the bargain hunters use secret codes when talking to each other.
He added: "The booking process for airlines is very complicated. There are many different people involved, from the booking engine, to the online travel agency, to the fare database, to the airline itself.
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"At every step there's the opportunity for a mistake. With over 100,000 flights a day, you're always going to find one where something has gone wrong."
But error fares are not always easy to spot - and sometimes it's just down to luck.
Tom said: "It can take days to find a good error fare and many don't like to share what they find. Most people will be better off following experts with special software and alerts."
HOW TO SPOT AN ERROR FARE
ERROR fares - when airlines and booking websites accidentally list flights at rock-bottom prices are often hard to spot. But here are some tips to spotting them.
- Do a broad search on a flight comparison tool like SkyScanner or Google flights. Look for fares from one airport to your destination of choice and select an entire month. It will be easy to spot if there are any really low prices.
- Look at flights where the departure airport is different from the return.
- Sign up to the to get alerted about error fares.
- Search forums like SecretFlying.com, Flynous.com and FlyerTalk.com and see if you can crack the secret code.
- Wait...once you find an error fare, you'll need to see if the airline or booking website will honour it.
Jack Sheldon, 29, left his job to become a full-time deal hunter for flights. His deals dedicated newsletter, , has over 110,000 subscribers.
When asked how to look for error fares, Jack said: "Do broad searches using tools like SkyScanner and Google Flights."
"For example, check for fares from Birmingham to all of South America for the month of August and see if anything really low appears."
"Another method is to make the departure and return airport different (this is called an open-jaw route)."
It means that you may have to travel to an alternative airport, so these types are not always the most convenient.
Jack added: "These irregular searches can often bring out some unexpected errors and help you snag an amazing deal. I found flights to Tokyo, departing from Paris and returning to London Heathrow at £250 return."
"The best error fare I've ever spotted was an £18 return ticket from London to Belize."
It's also up to the airline or the booking website to decide whether they honour the deal.
Around 60 per cent of error fares are accepted, while the rest end up being cancelled and refunded within a few days.
How to book a bargain flight without an error fare
ERROR fares are hard to find so we asked Tom Church, of LatestDeals.co.uk, for his top tips:
- Use MULTIPLE flight comparison engines. Google Flights, Skyscanner and KAYAK are good places to start. They use different sources of data and so you may find some offer cheaper prices than others.
- Flying from A to B via two separate airlines may be cheaper than one. But, if the first leg of our journey is delayed you may miss the second and not be able to get compensation. Kiwi, a flight comparison site, offers a guarantee if you book through them for your whole itinerary even if it's with multiple airlines.
- A crystal ball? Hopper is a free app which predicts the best time to buy a ticket. With a simple red, yellow and green indicator you can see which month is the best time to go and save hundreds.
- Sign up to the email newsletters of airlines to be the first to know about flash sales. Discount airlines such as Ryanair, easyjet and Monarch regularly host sale events where you can save up to 80 per cent.
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