Incredibly low or no-cost airfares, frequently referred to as "fat finger" fares, are out there. And we've all heard the stories: international tickets from San Jose to Paris for $27.98. Coast-to-coast roundtrip fares on US Airways for $0.88. Delta Air Lines fares from Washington to Maine for $0.00. These ridiculously low or no-cost airfares, the result of typographical and other errors, sound too good to be true. But they were real and many of the travelers who spotted them were able to book them.
But can you really fly for free or next-to-nothing?
Sometimes, but rarely. When an airline posts an unbelievably low fare, it's most likely an error of some type. If you stumble across such a fare, you still may not be able to book it as such errors are often fixed in a matter of minutes. And even if an airline honors a "fat finger" fare of, say, $0.00, you still have to pay fees and taxes, which can add up.
Do airlines and ticket sellers have to honor the incorrect fares?
Technically, no. San Francisco travel attorney Alexander Anolik says courts have ruled that companies do not have to honor an offer "if a reasonable person would recognize [that] it was a mistake." And that's were the law gets fuzzy. But some companies will honor the "fat finger" fare as a good-will gesture for their customers. In 2002, for example, Travelocity posted an Air Pacific flight from L.A. to Fiji for $0.00, plus $51 in taxes and fees. Travelocity honored the fare for an undisclosed number of flyers.
Getting the best airfare deals
You could spend hours online in the hopes of stumbling upon "fat finger" fares. But there are more reliable ways to save money on airfares. Spend just a few minutes on Cheapflights.com and you can find the best airfare deals on your route. And to ensure that you don't miss out on the latest deals, sign up for your free Deals Alert e-Newsletter and let the best airfare deals find you!
