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How about those "airline glitch tickets" where they (allegedly) make a mistake in putting the wrong price and someone caught a good deal? How do I get "lucky"? Do I need some kind of real time app that alerts me if there's cheap airline tickets listed? Kinda like an Ebay bidding war thing?
I can't wait to find a cheap travel ticket anywhere since it's been over 10 years since I got in an airplane I'll go anywhere for $7!
It's pretty rare as technology, which can cause this glitch, also has put checks and balances in place to detect these glitches.
1.) They are found quick and faster than in the past - this is due to not only airlines checking prices more often, but once it hits the internet everyone knows about it.
2.) They are more likely caused by human intervention (i.e. - hacking) and thus will be dishonored.
I have caught a few glitch tickets. You generally have to be "connected" in the sense that you need to be part of an online community that looks out for such deals, and you have to be prepared to take advantage of them within hours or even minutes of the glitch being found. Also you have to be the type of traveler that is willing to go to where ever the glitch fare is sending you as often it is not traditional travel destinations and sometimes there is a very narrow window of when you can take advantage of the fare. I've been following glitch fares for about 4 years and I will say that I can only think of 1 time that the fare wasn't honored even though there are laws that require airlines to honor them.
Also if you are truly flexible there are many non-glitch fare deals that can easily be found with the caveat that you generally need to be able to fly out of a major US city, mostly New York, and you also can't be picky about the airline. For example, Wow airlines and other low cost carriers are starting to offer deals to Europe that are often under $400 R/T but these are airlines with few to no amenities such as inflight entertainment or charging for both checked and carry on bags. But there are opportunities like recent fare offers from Emirates where you could travel on a top tier airline from New York to Milan for less than $400 a person.
I'm subscribed to a bunch of different mailing lists that send alerts on flight deals and error fares. The best one I have found has a small subscription cost, but that investment has more than paid off. Since I started getting their alerts 3-ish months ago I have snagged MSP to Milan for $362 for travel over New Years and MSP to Honolulu for $331 for March. Both deals were gone within hours.
If you want to play that game you have to be ready to pounce within minutes. I was booking the Hawaii tickets for my parents and my mom wanted to talk the idea through with my dad before buying. I got her convinced that it doesn't work like that. You can typically cancel within 24 hours if necessary, but if you don't move immediately you will miss out. By the time my dad got out of his meeting the cost had doubled.
The cheapest flight I have every taken was $26 city to city within Colombia. No trick to that one, just a dirt cheap discount carrier.
I'm subscribed to a bunch of different mailing lists that send alerts on flight deals and error fares. The best one I have found has a small subscription cost, but that investment has more than paid off. Since I started getting their alerts 3-ish months ago I have snagged MSP to Milan for $362 for travel over New Years and MSP to Honolulu for $331 for March. Both deals were gone within hours.
If you want to play that game you have to be ready to pounce within minutes. I was booking the Hawaii tickets for my parents and my mom wanted to talk the idea through with my dad before buying. I got her convinced that it doesn't work like that. You can typically cancel within 24 hours if necessary, but if you don't move immediately you will miss out. By the time my dad got out of his meeting the cost had doubled.
The cheapest flight I have every taken was $26 city to city within Colombia. No trick to that one, just a dirt cheap discount carrier.
Haven't seen a fare as low as $7. But there are constant cheap fares I see all the time. See Secret Flying, or Exit Fares has better alert customization.
I've seen Chicago to L.A. (vice versa) as cheap as $80 RT. The international hacker fares get a little dicier though. My husband and I saw a RT from Chicago to Paris (where we were planning on going) for ~$400 each RT, but some of these international deals are through international booking agencies (similar to priceline) with less than stellar customer service. So we didn't want to risk it.
You also have to be prepared that the airline will not honor the price.
The way I look at it.. If a reasonable person could see a fare for that.. The fare is normally $500 and you get it for $250.. I can see that.. It's a huge discount, but it's not unreasonable.. The airline should honor it.
If you book a normally $7000 fare for $70. That's an obvious mistake and if the airline honors it.. Consider yourself lucky. Most will not. And I don't blame them. That's an obvious mistake and no reasonable person would expect a discount like that.
Booking a fare that you obviously know is a mistake is dishonest. Where, exactly that line lies.. I can't tell you, but there's a line there somewhere.
All the time, but the pool is not as good as it used to be, and you won't find them for $7. Because of social media, they disappear as soon as they appear, so you have to get them while you can. Back in the day, they stuck around a bit longer, sometimes a few days. It helps to be flexible and to have a sense of when you want to go, as some glitches can be for flights occurring during certain months.
If the airline or the OTA doesn't want to honor a mistake fare, you have some protections with the DOT, but I had a sub $300 round trip flight to Japan that an OTA fought me on, and I lost. It sucked, but I figure you win some, you lose some.
I got a mistake fare to Portugal for $195 round trip from Secret Flyer, which another poster mentioned. You can try The Flight Deal too.
Currently, due to fare wars with low cost carriers such as WOW and Norwegian, you will see tons of great flights to Europe on legacy carriers. I know British Airways went as low as $252 NYC to Paris. I just grabbed NYC to London for $415 total. You're better off looking for these flights as they are out there now. I never had luck with domestic mistake fares.
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