Error Fare
A ticket priced far below its true value due to an airline pricing mistake — sometimes 70–90% cheaper than normal.
What is an error fare?
An error fare — sometimes called a mistake fare — is a flight ticket that goes on sale at a price dramatically lower than the airline intended. These pricing glitches happen when an airline's reservation system, a travel agent's GDS feed, or a currency conversion calculation produces a fare that is a fraction of its real market value. You might see a business-class ticket to Tokyo for €200, or a return to New York for €90.
Error fares are genuine tickets on real flights. You book them the same way as any other fare, usually on the airline's own website or via a third-party booking tool. The difference is speed: once spotted, these fares tend to disappear within minutes to a few hours as airlines reprice or withdraw them.
Why do error fares happen?
Airlines manage hundreds of thousands of fares across thousands of routes simultaneously. Fares are loaded into pricing systems by humans, and a misplaced decimal, a forgotten zero, or a currency conversion error can produce absurdly low prices. A common example: an airline loads a fare in Thai Baht but the system treats it as US Dollars — turning a £500 ticket into a £12 one.
Technology integrations between legacy pricing systems, third-party GDS platforms, and modern booking sites create multiple points of failure. A fare that slips through at one stage can propagate widely before anyone notices. Flash-cache systems and automated scrapers — like FairFares — catch these anomalies the moment they appear.
Should I book an error fare?
Most aviation lawyers and consumer groups agree: if you book in good faith, you have a strong claim to be ticketed at the advertised price. EU Regulation EC 261/2004 and US DOT rules have historically supported passengers who book error fares. Airlines must generally honour confirmed bookings, though some will cancel and offer refunds instead.
The pragmatic advice: book the error fare as soon as you see it, but do not buy non-refundable hotels or visas until the airline has issued a confirmed e-ticket (which usually takes a few minutes to arrive by email). If the airline cancels your booking, you will get a full refund. The worst outcome is a free lesson in how airline pricing works.
FairFares flags error fares with a ⚡ label and a "move fast" banner. Subscribe to deal alerts to be notified the moment one appears on your favourite routes.