My travel dreams were stuck in a spreadsheet, a long list of “someday” destinations that felt impossibly expensive. That changed on a random Tuesday when a notification flashed on my screen: “$80 Roundtrip: New York to Barcelona.”
It had to be a mistake. Eighty dollars is dinner, not a transatlantic flight. My heart hammered as I clicked “Purchase” without a second thought, terrified the glitch would vanish.
That single click unlocked the world of mistake fares—fleeting pricing errors that can slash tickets by 90%. It was the start of a year-long trip to 12 countries for under $1,000 in airfare. This is the playbook on how you can do it too.
How to Find Mistake Fares
What is a Mistake Fare?
After I booked my flight to Barcelona, I was nervous. I kept checking my email, expecting the airline to cancel my ticket. But they never did. My ticket was confirmed. I had to learn how I was able to fly to Spain for less than a taxi ride to the airport.
These super cheap flights are real errors, not planned sales. They happen for a few main reasons:
- Human Error: Someone typing in the flight price makes a mistake. For example, they might type $80 instead of $800. This is often called a “fat finger” mistake.
- Tech Glitches: The computer systems that airlines use to set prices are very complicated. Sometimes, a problem between an airline’s system and a ticket-selling website can cause the wrong price to be shown.
- Missing Fees: Airlines add extra fees for things like fuel, which can cost hundreds of dollars. A glitch can sometimes leave these fees off the final price. This is how people have found flights to Bangkok for $187 and Dublin for $135.
- Currency Conversion Errors: When prices are changed from one currency to another, mistakes can happen. A misplaced decimal point once caused a $4,000 United Airlines flight to be sold for $79 because of a mix-up between the Danish Kroner and the British Pound.
My $80 ticket to Barcelona was likely one of these lucky computer errors.
How You Can Find These Deals
After my trip to Spain, I was hooked. I learned that finding a mistake fare isn’t just about luck. You need the right tools and a good plan. Here’s how you can find them.
There are three main ways to find mistake fares. The first is the easiest: let other people find deals for you. You can sign up for services that have experts and computers looking for deals all day.
- Going (formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights): This is a very popular service. It started when the founder, Scott Keyes, found a $130 flight from NYC to Milan and told his friends. They are known for sending high-quality deals found by real people.13
- Thrifty Traveler Premium: This service sends alerts for cheap cash flights and deals using points and miles. They also send instant text messages for the best deals, which include mistake fares.
- Other Services: Jack’s Flight Club and Dollar Flight Club also have teams that look for deals every day.
The second way is to find deals yourself. This takes more work.
- Google Flights: This is the best tool for searching on your own. The “Explore” map lets you put in your home airport and see prices to places all over the world. You need to know what a normal price is. If you see a price that is 75-90% lower than usual, you might have found a mistake fare. You can also set up price alerts for trips you want to take.
- Skyscanner: This site is like Google Flights. Its “Everywhere” search is great if you are flexible and will go wherever the deal is.
The third way is to join travel communities. Mistake fares don’t last long, so you need to hear about them fast. Deals are often found and shared first in online groups like the FlyerTalk forums, especially in the “Mileage Run Deals” section.
After that, services like Going will check the deal and send it to their members. The deal shows up later on social media, but by then it’s usually gone.
To have the best chance, you should use all three methods. Pay for a service to get fast alerts, but also check places like FlyerTalk and Reddit’s r/traveldeals to find deals even sooner.
How to Book a Mistake Fare (The Right Way)
My next great find was a $259 roundtrip ticket to Hong Kong. I got the email alert during a work call. I put my microphone on mute, quickly entered my info, and bought the ticket in less than two minutes. Five minutes later, the deal was gone. Booking mistake fares is a fast-paced game with a few very important rules.
The Golden Rules of Booking
Rule 1: Book First, Ask Questions Later.
This is the most important rule. If you wait, you will miss the deal. The best mistake fares can be gone in minutes, and most don’t last more than a few hours. You have to book the flight the moment you see it and figure out the details later.
This feels risky, but you have a safety net: the 24-hour cancellation rule. In the U.S., if you book a flight at least seven days before it leaves, you can cancel it within 24 hours for a full cash refund. This rule lets you lock in the price for a day while you check your schedule or talk to friends.
Rule 2: Book Directly with the Airline.
When you can, you should always book on the airline’s website, not on a site like Expedia or Priceline.
Those sites are middlemen. They take your money and then ask the airline for the ticket. That delay can cause problems. If the airline fixes the price before your ticket is issued, the website will just give you a refund.
Booking with the airline is usually instant, which gives you a much better chance of getting the ticket at the mistake price.
Rule 3: Don’t Call the Airline.
This is a big rule in the mistake fare community. Never, ever call the airline to ask if the price is real. If you do, you are pointing out their mistake. They will cancel your ticket and fix the price, which ruins the deal for everyone else.
Rule 4: Wait Before Making Other Plans.
You booked the flight and got a ticket number. Now, you have to be patient. For at least two weeks, do not book any hotels, tours, or other flights that you can’t get a refund for. This is the best way to protect yourself.
Most cancellations happen in the first few days, but waiting two weeks is the safest bet. If two weeks go by and you haven’t heard anything, your ticket is probably safe.
Airlines in the U.S. don’t have to honor mistake fares anymore, as long as they can prove it was an error and they give you your money back. But, about 70-90% of mistake fares are still honored.
The airline has to decide if the money they lose from the cheap tickets is worse than the bad publicity they would get for canceling them. By waiting, you give the airline time to make this choice.
My Year of Impossible Travel
How One Cheap Flight Unlocks the World
My year of travel wasn’t 12 different trips from my home in New York. The trick is to use a mistake fare as a cheap ferry to another continent. Travel expert Scott Keyes calls this the “Greek Islands Strategy”.
You find a cheap flight to a big city, like Athens, and then use budget airlines to fly to your final destination, like Santorini. This is much cheaper than flying direct.
I did this over and over. I found a $230 roundtrip mistake fare from New York to Paris. From Paris, I booked a $35 flight to Lisbon, a $40 train to Madrid, and a $50 flight to Rome.
The first mistake fare opened up all of Europe for me. A single great deal to a city like Hong Kong or London can be the start of a trip to many countries.
The List of a Crazy Year
To show this was real, I kept a list of my flights. Each one is a story. There was the $63 roundtrip flight to Santiago, Chile, on Delta. I remember looking at the Andes mountains and thinking that my airport parking back home cost more than my flight.
Then there was the $249 roundtrip business class mistake fare to Rome. I felt like I didn’t belong, drinking champagne in a seat that turned into a bed, knowing I paid less than most people in economy.
I also took trips to places I had only dreamed of, like Fiji for $324 and the Bahamas for just $66.
The Reality Check: My Trip to Nowhere
I also have to tell you about the trip that didn’t happen. It’s an important part of the story because this game can be disappointing sometimes. I saw an alert for a business class flight to Europe on Air France/KLM for only 1,500 miles each way.
I moved my credit card points and booked a trip to Amsterdam. I was already thinking about the canals and waffles. A week later, I got the cancellation email.
When a Ticket Gets Canceled
This happens. While most mistake fares are honored, there’s always a risk they will be canceled. Experts say about 10% to 30% of mistake fares get canceled.
The most expensive tickets, like business or first class, are the most likely to be canceled.6 It’s disappointing, but it’s part of the game.
How an airline handles cancellations tells you a lot about them. For my canceled Air France flight, the airline canceled the tickets for most people but honored them for their most loyal customers.
Some airlines will honor a fare to get good press. Others will just cancel all the tickets if the financial loss is too big.
