diff --git a/src/main.c b/src/main.c
index f35fc62d54..5585c1755b 100644
--- a/src/main.c
+++ b/src/main.c
@@ -5439,8 +5439,12 @@ operate(struct Configurable *config, int argc, argv_item_t argv[])
             if(CURLE_OPERATION_TIMEDOUT == res)
               /* retry timeout always */
               retry = RETRY_TIMEOUT;
-            else if(CURLE_OK == res) {
-              /* Check for HTTP transient errors */
+            else if((CURLE_OK == res) ||
+                    (config->failonerror &&
+                     (CURLE_HTTP_RETURNED_ERROR == res))) {
+              /* If it returned OK. _or_ failonerror was enabled and it
+                 returned due to such an error, check for HTTP transient
+                 errors to retry on. */
               char *this_url=NULL;
               curl_easy_getinfo(curl, CURLINFO_EFFECTIVE_URL, &this_url);
               if(this_url &&