If you see a great deal, jump on it! It just might allow you to fly First Class, like this Qatar Airways A380 on the cheap! Photo by: Evan Berman

Travel is seemingly the last thing that you would want to impulsively book. After all a good trip requires lots of planning, right? A few examples include: prices, weather (what clothes do I need to bring, am I at risk of inclement weather ruining my trip?), passports and possibly visas for international travel, and requesting time off from work. And that’s just the beginning! You probably want to research what to do in the destination(s)– everything from where to eat and drink to an itinerary and list of can’t miss spots.

So why is the title of this article “… book it now and ask questions later?” Well, while the above is true, the good news is it’s not as difficult as you might think and, more importantly, deals that are too good to last don’t last! Let’s dive in. Note that this article is focusing only on flights. It is generally much easier to find hotels, food, and activities that are in your budget– no matter what that may be– once you have booked the flights.

What’s the Difference between a Good Deal and a Scam?

Let me clarify what I mean by a “good deal” by using two examples. Say you are searching for a flight to Asia from San Francisco and you come across a Business Class flight that costs $700 one-way. That is a terrific discount compared to the normal price of $2,000-$5,000. Is that enough to make you shy away? It shouldn’t! Here’s where the test begins… a good deal means that when you find that price in Google Flights, you can book it through the airline or a reputable website such as SkyScanner, Expedia, or Booking.com. If that price is only available by booking through a website called supergreatlowpricesthisisalegitwebsite.com, I’d recommend you avoid booking that flight unless you have a very high tolerance for risk and enjoy calling the fraud department of your credit card of choice! Now, that is an extreme example and, to my knowledge, no such website exists, but the point remains.

With that brief note out of the way, let’s talk about the two types of great flight deals that you might run into: super sweet spot awards and mistake fares.

Super Sweet Spot Awards with Points

The impetus for this article comes from 2 deals that I booked recently that were far below what the “market” rate is for the routes. Unfortunately, both appear to have been corrected. 🙁

Qatar JetBlue Pricing Super Sweet Spot:

This is a great example of why you should book first and ask questions later with these types of deals. On Sunday at 11:35am ET, I received the above email informing me that Qatar Avios can be used to book JetBlue flights, including their transatlantic services. Doesn’t seem too exciting right? Well, Qatar, like the other Avios groups (British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus), has an unpublished but widely known distance-based award chart. One of the sweet spots is in Business Class. Flights that are 2,001-3,000 miles price at 38,750 Avios per person while those that are 3,001-4,000 price out at 62,000 Avios per person. That’s a huge jump!

None of this would be notable, except there’s a route that falls just under 3,000 miles. The distance between Boston, Massachusetts and Dublin, Ireland is 2,993 miles! We had been wanting to go to Ireland, so this was perfect timing! However, even if we had no plans to visit Dublin, this is one where I would have booked it anyway. Qatar charges $50 to cancel or change award bookings and worst case scenario, I would have paid $50 to get all my points and the minimal taxes and fees back. Alternatively, I could fly to Dublin then connect to somewhere else in Europe! Below is the search result for a date in May. Notice that the price is 116,250 Avios for 3 people, 38,750 per person:

That’s a Great Deal! Or Was…

For context, remember when I wrote about the terrific deal I got flying Turkish Airlines’ Business Class for 31,500 miles to Europe and $268 in taxes and fees? That is down from the normal price of 45,000 miles to fly to Europe in Business Class. This deal does not have any surcharges, meaning that not only is 38,750 less than the current best mileage deal to get to Europe, but it’s as close to “free travel” as you will get, at $10 per person. The return ex-Europe is much pricier at around $90 per person! 😉

I booked us Tuesday night around 6pm ET, just 54 hours after the announcement. The next morning (Wednesday around 9am ET), JetBlue awards were unable to be booked using Qatar Avios, due to “maintenance.” The ability to book is back, with the new price of 78,000 Avios per person, more than double the price we paid! Note that this price is exclusively for JetBlue flights, all others price according to the same award chart as before. Here is a search conducted tonight:

British Airways Dubai Pricing Error:

Earlier this summer I stumbled upon a glitch in the British Airways system. Prior to September, if you booked a flight on Qatar Airways originating in Dubai, the price for a mixed cabin itinerary (that is, Economy on the <1 hour flight from Dubai to Doha, Qatar and Business Class from Doha to your final destination) was the same as the all-economy price. Let me show illustrate this with some photos:

For context, here is the pricing of just the DOH-GRU segment, with “normal” pricing:

This glitch has been fixed, so now the mixed cabin itinerary trick won’t work, you’ll be forced to either choose all Economy Class, paying that lower award price or all Business Class, paying the higher award cost. If it’s too good to be true, book it now!

Mistake Fares: A Unicorn or Lucky Finds?

What is a mistake fare? There is no real definition and sometimes the difference between a mistake fare and a flash sale can be nearly impossible to discern. So, I will paraphrase Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart and say, “[you’ll] know it when [you] see it.” Airlines employ dynamic pricing, meaning that prices can fluctuate 24/7. There are three common reasons for mistake fares:

• Human error
• Currency conversion error
• OTA Glitch error

Human Error:

Did you know that even in 2023, most prices are still hard coded into the system? It’s true and as unbelievable as it may sound, there are still instances where the proper fare is $2,420 and the final 0 is left off, meaning that the price is temporarily listed as $242! When this happens, it is rare for anyone outside of the airline to find out– airline pricing technology is sophisticated enough that these errors are usually caught within a few minutes to an hour. That being said, there are always exceptions to that rule and you may just luck out! I’ll cover what happens if you book that mistake fare below.

Currency Conversion Error:

This is the more common source of mistake fares, especially for flights originating, arriving, or flying on a carrier that is based in a country with a very weak currency. The Vietnamese Dong and Laotian Kip are two of the weakest currencies in the world. 1 Dong is currently worth 0.000041USD ($1 equals more than 24,390 Vietnamese Dong)! Meanwhile the Laotian Kip is a much more robust currency as $1 equals only 20,670 Laotian Kip! What happens when a flight is supposed to cost $2,000 or even $10,000? That’s 48,780,000 or 243,900,000 Dong and 41,340,000 or 206,700,000 Kip. That’s a lot of numbers! And sometimes sophisticated computer programs either have an upper limit for the amounts of digits that can be displayed or the calculation simply is done incorrectly in the program.

When you lop off a zero, that’s a big difference! 243,900,000 Dong is $10,000 while 24,390,000 is only $1,000. This particular error means that you will only be able to take advantage of the pricing error if you book in the currency of that error. To use the same example of 243M Dong vs. 24M Dong, booking in USD, you would still see the $10,000 price. This type of error only benefits those who book using the currency that shows the error. To do this, you would need to visit the (in this case) Vietnamese site and book using that currency. Remember, Google Translate is your friend– even if you do not speak the language of the currency that is showing an error, you can still take advantage of it!

OTA Glitch Error:

Last but not least, we have the OTA glitch fare error. OTA is the abbreviation for Online Travel Agency. You are probably familiar with the most famous ones, again Expedia, Kayak, and booking.com fall into this category. There are 100s if not 1,000s of OTA, ranging from very reputable to extremely sketchy. Sometimes an OTA will have trouble pricing the fare correctly. Nobody really knows for sure why this happens but OTAs do not update the prices instantly as airline websites do. It’s common for an OTA to update the price of every flight once a day, usually around midnight in the local time of the OTA’s country. Twice this year, this type of error occurred.

Here is an example of the Kiwi (a trustworthy site that I have personally booked flights with several times) error:

What Happens When You Book a Mistake Fare?

I’ve discussed how you might come across a mistake fare. But, what happens if you book one? Once again, there’s no clear cut answer. Sometimes an airline or OTA will honor your purchase. There was a famous example of this a few years ago when First Class tickets on Cathay Pacific were sold for ~$500 and honored, building up great goodwill and causing the airline to incur a loss. Unfortunately, the two most notable examples from the past year, the Kiwi OTA glitch and the ANA currency glitch were not honored. Here’s where there can be some headache involved. If this mistake fare is not honored, you will receive notification that your ticket has been cancelled.

If you book through an airline, generally speaking you will receive your refund within 5-12 business days after receiving the cancellation notice. OTAs are a different story. I’ve personally not had any issues getting a refund on the 1 deal that I engaged in which was cancelled but there are horror stories of OTAs pretending that you signed up for this by not adding on the “travel insurance” that they offer. If that ever happens to you, know your rights. You are entitled to your money back, keep calling customer service and escalate as need be. Your ace in the hole is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They are able to help you get your money back if you cannot get it from the OTA.

Recap:

Travel deals are out there. You frequently see sales. For example, I booked (and ultimately cancelled due to schedule issues) a roundtrip American Airlines flight from New York to Paris for $250, similar to the $261 that I paid for my Norse Airways trip from New York to Oslo and back last December. However, there are sometimes extreme sweet spots (such as the recent Qatar Avios JetBlue Business Class bargain) or outright error fares/pricing.

If you are lucky enough to come across one, book first and ask questions later! Make sure you know what the rules regarding cancellations and refunds are, but unless the trip requires visiting an area with an active war zone (or one where that is likely to occur), I’d suggest you go for it! Life is short, take advantage of the great opportunities that come along! I’d love to know what the best deal you’ve ever seen or taken advantage of is!

Evan