When you’re squashed in a brutally designed airline seat, you might forget that airline workers actually understand what it means to be human. But they do—and they make mistakes like humans. Now and then, they put the wrong fares into the booking system, and there are legions of nerds out there who trawl those systems in search of abnormally low prices, alerting their followers the minute they find one. There are lots of downsides to this method—you have to act with lightning speed before the price is corrected, occasionally the airlines refuse to honor what they’ve mistakenly sold, your discoveries will pretty much never be to the destination you need to reach, and you’ll probably have to pay membership fees up front.
Of the error fare leaders, The Flight Deal is free, but you have to pay if you want the alerts pared down to your home airport. At Going (formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights), the best deals are only given to subscribers—membership starts around $49 a year if you only want to hear about Economy-class tickets. Secret Flying is another option.
If you’re open to going somewhere new and unexpected, error fares can be a boon. But if you specifically need to see your Aunt Myrtle in Shaker Heights, then waiting for a goof that specifically suits your needs would be a mistake.