Qantas accidentally sells first-class seats up to 85% off normal price

Monday, 26 August 2024

Around 300 bookings were made in the 8 hours the incorrect first-class fare was available on qantas.com.

The airline has blamed a coding error.

Qantas will give those customers an option to be rebooked into business class at no additional cost, or they have the option of a full refund.

Hundreds of Qantas passengers thought they had snapped up a real bargain after the Australian carrier accidentally advertised first-class seats for up to 85% off the regular price.

Around 300 people grabbed the offer on August 22 for flights between Australia and the US. The error was on qantas.com for eight hours.

The airline has blamed a coding error and a spokesperson admitted: “Unfortunately, this is a case where the fare was actually too good to be true.”

Qantas will give those customers an option to be rebooked into business class at no additional cost, or they have the option of a full refund.

The fare people paid is still about 65% cheaper than a regular business class ticket.

One person who took advantage was William Fowler. The American, who lives in Sydney, paid A$4300 (NZ$4690) for return first-class airfares to Los Angeles.

Despite not getting a prized first-class seat he told news.com.au that he was still “excited”: “It’s a great price for business, it would have been an unbelievable price for first class.”

Qantas said the terms and conditions state that if there’s an error or mistake that is reasonably obvious in the fare price, it may cancel the booking and offer a full refund.

Airlines accidentally selling low fares isn't new.

Last year, China Southern Airlines blamed a glitch in its booking system for the sudden appearance of extremely low prices for flights, with some advertised as low as 10 yuan, which is just over NZ$2. Instead of cancelling the tickets and forcing those who purchased them to pay the full price, the airline said it would honour them.

In 2018, British Airways advertised flights to Tel Aviv and Dubai on third-party agents for as little as £1 (NZ$2) plus taxes. The 2000 tickets that were snapped up were cancelled due to the 'error'.

Also in 2018, travellers who booked flights with Air New Zealand were told their bookings wouldn't be honoured – because the airline sold the fares too cheaply.

Fares for travel from cities in the United States to New Zealand were mistakenly made available through third-party websites and travel agents for about 10% of their intended value.