Accidental Fares: Deliberate?

So many times now, we have seen and heard airlines posting ridiculously low fares by "accident", that one might wonder if these accidents are becoming such great publicity stunts for the airlines.  The story goes similar in each instance:  An airline loads fares into the system that are a fraction of the cost of the actual fares.  Social media buzz and publicity ensues increasing web traffic to the carrier, followed by the anguish over whether the airline would honor those "accidental" fares. Lo and behold, they do!  Only a handful to a few hundreds of tickets might be sold at discount, but airlines reap tons of publicity that have spawned a cottage industry of "fare alerts" websites that will alert you of such anomalies.  Bottom line is this stunt is more effective than the cost of paid advertising.  Do not be surprised to see more of these "accidents" in the future. www.premieretravel.com