Nothing beats the rush of a mistake fare – for us here at TT HQ and especially for our Thrifty Traveler Premium members. One minute you get a text message about some unbelievably cheap fares and the next minute, you're booked.
We all got the rush of a lifetime last week: $410 one-way business class fares flying Turkish Airlines from Vancouver (YVR) to a half-dozen cities throughout Europe.
It was one of the wonkiest flight deals we've seen in years, maybe ever … but c'mon: That price! We heard from dozens of members – close to 100, I bet – who booked before the deal died.
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And then the other shoe dropped 48-ish hours later: Turkish began canceling everything, citing “clearly erroneous fare levels.” Cue up the refunds … and maybe a tear or two.
That's the frustrating reality with mistake fares: You win some, you lose some. A $134 roundtrip fare to Dublin gets honored, but not this one. So it goes.
But every mistake fare is different in its own special way. Yes, we really talk about mistake fares as if they're our children here. We're totally normal people, I swear.
So let's put this thrilling, too-good-to-be-true business class mistake fare under the microscope, shall we?
An Obvious Mistake
Sometimes, it's hard to tell what's an honest-to-god mistake fare – when an airline actually screws up and sells tickets at unthinkably and unintentionally low prices – and what's just a really good deal. To quote a famous old Supreme Court ruling: Sometimes, “I know it when I see it.”
But in this case, it was obvious: Turkish goofed. Bad.
No matter what you're booking, there's much more to the price of your flight than the final, round number you see at checkout. You can break it down into a half-dozen or more different components: Government taxes, airport fees, fuel and airline surcharges, and finally, the actual airfare.
Turkish Airlines forgot to add the actual fare to those dirt-cheap tickets from Vancouver. Whoops!
That's why a normal one-way business class flight from Canada to Europe would cost $4,000 or so…
But when you accidentally leave that massive “base fare” off, travelers wind up paying just a few hundred bucks in taxes and fees.
This is why we warn you unequivocally on deals like these: “This is likely a MISTAKE FARE! Don’t make other nonrefundable bookings for at least 15 days to ensure the airline honors this deal.”
Plus, there were other signs…
A Super Strange Deal, Too
Remember how I said every deal is special? This one was easily the strangest we've seen in years, with a handful of quirks that screamed “mistake fare” to us.
- It was only bookable one way. Roundtrip fares priced out as normal at thousands of dollars apiece.
- And only from Vancouver – not Toronto (YYZ), Montreal (YUL), or any of the dozen-plus U.S. cities Turkish flies from.
- It was only bookable through Turkish Airlines' own site: These absurdly cheap fares were nowhere to be found on any other booking site or portal. While you could use Google Flights to pin down dates that priced out as low as $410, clicking through to book would error out
That last point is a hallmark of mistake fares. It often comes down to booking through one place – the sole airline that screwed up when publishing these fares.
Clearly, that was Turkish itself. And unfortunately, they decided not to honor their mistake – something that regulators around the world (sadly) allow them to get away with.
Part of me wonders whether Turkish would have canceled these fares if fuel prices hadn't shot through the roof recently…
What We Learned
OK, so this one didn't pan out. But there's a lot to learn from this wild ride we all went on together.
- Mistake fares have gotten rarer … or have they? We always say that mistake fares are unpredictable (which is true) and incredibly rare. Yet we've sent an average of about three a year, dating back to 2020. This latest deal is proof: The airlines still screw up sometimes!
- Yes, airlines can cancel them – but the track record is solid. Of the roughly 20 mistake fares we've sent members in the last six or so years, just two have been canceled by the airline – including this one. I'd love that to be 100%, but I like those odds.
- When airlines do cancel, they move fast. We tell travelers to wait 10-15 days or more before booking any nonrefundable flights, hotels, or other pieces of a trip – just to ensure their mistake fare sticks. But in each case where airlines canceled fares, they did so within 72 hours. While we'd prefer airlines honor the tickets they sell, mistake or not, I'm glad they don't let things sit in limbo.
- The thrill of the chase is real. The response to this fare last week was overwhelming in the best way. And I know why: Just like you, we love to beat airlines at their own game. Honestly, that's the reason why our flight deal service – and heck, this entire company – exists. And the thrill of booking a $4,000-some business class ticket for $400-some is … well, there's nothing else like it.
So onto the next one, travelers. Because if I've learned anything in the last decade, it's that the next unbelievable deal is always just around the corner.
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