Do you want to know the secret to getting cheap flights and traveling around the world cheaply? Do you sometimes wonder how travel bloggers and Instagram influencers seem to always be jetting around the world without a source of income? A lot of them do it by finding mistake fares.
Believe it or not, most of us travel bloggers do pay for our own airfare and most of us aren't jet-setting around the world for free. Most of us use tools and apps very smartly to our advantage to land us the best airfare deals.
Trust me, I'm using the same techniques and tools they're using and I've flown my way around the world to over 53 countries.
What the secret sauce?
Mighty Travels Premium (MTP)
Now I know what you're thinking. It's another affiliate or paid sponsored post for some common travel website that Skyscanner or Google ITA Matrix already does for free.
But MTP is anything but and can land you deals like $100 ticket from SFO to Singapore!
So what makes Mighty Travels Premium a cut from the rest?
Mighty Travels Premium is a website that collects and analyzes airfare data from anywhere to everywhere and helps you figure out the best airfare deals anywhere worldwide.
[caption id="attachment_23167" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
The service is driven by data and it crunches the information really good to provide you with the best deals possible. There is no "Buy Now" buttons urging you to purchase as soon as possible like other airfare deal websites.
Mighty Travels Premium takes no commission from any airline or booking agencies, it makes it only on the subscription service so there's no incentive to pressure you to buy some fares that's not always the best bang for the buck.
Never miss a good deal - Start your Free 30 Day Free Trial.
How does the service work?
When you sign up for MTP you will get access to the informative Dashboard. You can set your home airport at the get go but you can set a wider cluster of departure airports if you wanted to. For example, say you live in Los Angels but also interested in finding deals from San Francisco or San Diego.
If you want, you can even target a wider zone of departure since the MTP has split the world in 11 different zones.
There is an extensive notification options that allows you to select what cabin classes you want like Economy, Premium Economy, Business, and First Class.
The dashboard's search interface is intuitive and allows you to search through all awesome deals and the fares it found. The information crammed into the dashboard is pretty extensive. In just a few seconds it was able to find all 'deals' from the 'US to Europe' and also showed me prices (San Francisco was the cheapest) but all secondary airports showed up in the results too.
The dashboard also contain information about bags fees, carry-ons, mileage points that have been flown and earned, and even how much miles are available for redemption (if you choose not to buy a airline ticket).
Another nifty feature is the email or text alert. Every few days or so, I get an alert, only once, that highlights a deal that the service has found. I found this feature very useful and I've found excellent deals that I was able to book right away.
Mistake Fares
What are mistake fares? And what to do with them?
Occasionally MTP will send you deals that come with a remark 'might get cancelled' or as a 'Curated Alert'. Sometimes you will find also find these deals in the Dashboard. However, mistake fares will only be around for a few days in the dashboard and won't be bookable any longer until they disappear.
Why does it happen?
Airline companies typically have a price already in mind that they want to sell tickets for. It's usually driven by a CPM model which is the same way MTP use to price deals. The problem is, some airline companies use outdated technology and fares can sometimes pop up at 70-99% below the targeted price level the airline company had in mind.
More often, these mistake fares are available just for a few minutes and only through some selected OTAs/ Booking engines in some specific country. MTP will send you an exact booking link that allows you to book mistake fares at the time of the curated alert.
[caption id="attachment_23161" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
Although, airlines are not obligated to honor the fare, they typically decide within two weeks if they plan to honor it. As a general rule of thumb, the higher a price and shorter the duration of when the mistake fare can be booked; the more likely the airline company will honor it.
There are no hard and fast to land mistake fares and you just have to be patient. It can take a few weeks or more. Allow at least two weeks to make plans such as hotel bookings. Some airlines may reimburse you for these expenses but often takes a lot of effort on your side.
Should you book mistake fares?
Yes. If you are flexible and have time to nurture a booking. Mistake fares can land you a first class cabin with economy prices. MTP can help you find and land these mistake fares.
Other Things You Need to Know about Mighty Travels Premium
MTP supports 196 currencies worldwide but just the English language so far.
The service charges $7.99 a month or $4.81 per month if you get a year's subscription. The service easily pays for itself if you purchase just one ticket the entire year. The last deal it was able to find for me was easily $450 less than what I would have paid for not using the service.
If you catch one mistake fare and booked it, the service would have paid for itself 10 times over. This is why I highly recommend Mighty Travels Premium
Never miss a good deal again - Start your Free 30 Day Free Trial.
Things I liked:
you get an email everyday for the first few days explaining how the service works
once set the notification are hands free and works like a charm
never short on deals - some of the routes are dirt cheap and I have to restrain myself from buying
the nifty option to set a destination filter (Paris here I come!).
option to filter out low quality airlines with a Skytrax ranking
the deals have pricing information on average prices
Things I didn't like:
information can be overwhelming - seems like it was made for business than consumer
some of the deals did not price out as I expected (MTP only provides help in booking deals but sometimes it takes a while to find the correct or working booking link).
Never miss a good deal again - Start your Free 30 Day Free Trial.