diff --git a/lib/workers/pr/index.js b/lib/workers/pr/index.js
index ed82d90b0a015134e51ae097b1796af1f6fdecd5..499cebed5f4a59caa9ce51405e4eaf8050ec8890 100644
--- a/lib/workers/pr/index.js
+++ b/lib/workers/pr/index.js
@@ -296,8 +296,11 @@ async function ensurePr(prConfig) {
     return pr;
   } catch (err) {
     // istanbul ignore if
-    if (err.message === 'rate-limit-exceeded') {
-      logger.debug('Passing rate-limit-exceeded error up');
+    if (
+      err.message === 'rate-limit-exceeded' ||
+      err.message === 'platform-failure'
+    ) {
+      logger.debug('Passing error up');
       throw err;
     }
     logger.error({ err }, 'Failed to ensure PR:', err);