People say travelling is expensive – but these people are dreaming.
Well, maybe not dreaming… but travel can definitely be way cheaper than people think…
A few weeks ago, one friend told me she booked a flight from London to New York City for $70 â my first reaction was like âSheâs definitely lyingâ â thereâs no way an airline can cover their expenses by selling tickets for such a low price!
However, later on I remembered that time I spent $1 (yes, one dollar) for a flight in Europe. These prices are obviously not the prices the airlines are looking to sell their flight tickets for â they are obviously are just errors. Beautiful errors sent from heaven. Want to know how to find them? Read on.
So… is finding cheap flights just about luck? Or is there an actual way to spot them?
Well, letâs first talk about âwhatâ causes these glorious errors.
As incredible as it sounds, these errors are mostly triggered by either:
- Miscalculating Currency exchange rate
Oops, I meant American dollars not Zimbabwean dollar…
    2. Not adding Fuel, surcharges and other additional fees
These extra fees shouldnât even exist anyway…
    3. An employee mistake
Yup, as traditional as human error and laziness sound, this is still the cause of some of these errors.
    4. Correcting every single error is just too hard
Imagine the amount of flight combinations out on the internet… Ainât nobody got time for that!
Alright cool, so letâs get into the interesting part⌠finding these cuties while planning your next trip:
The easiest way is probably to track what some specialised sites say â there are websites like Secretflying or fly4free that secretly track and point out all these errors happening everyday. Make sure you sign up to their Newsletter, so you can get notified as soon as they spot an incredibly cheap flight. Remember that you need to be quick when it comes to booking an error fare flight!
However, you can also spot cheap flights yourself in a very simple way. Some Websites like Skyscanner offer to search for a flight in a more broad way â Month by Month instead of per day. By doing this, sometimes you can spot an incredible gap between the price of one day and the rest, so if you have the flexibility â go and search for flights this way!
Nevertheless, there are some very valuable forums out there where individual experts share their knowledge in the topic â In Australia, for instance, you can use OzBargain for this.
Okay I know what youâre thinking⌠Letâs say you manage to spot one of these errors, itâs actually suitable for you and you end up booking it â Can the ticket get cancelled later on due to its low price?
Well, it can, but the likelihood is very low. The risky period will be from the moment you pay for it, until the moment you receive the actual confirmation â from that point onwards, youâre ready to roll â youâve got a cheap flight and you would only need to worry for the expenses in the spot.
Luckily for you, with Friend Theory platform you can spot where all your friends and friends of friends are based, so you donât need to worry about accommodation either as you would find a place to stay wherever you are travelling to! So there you go, now youâre ready to travel for free!