It was a travel sale that appeared to be too good to
be true: business and first-class flights on Cathay Pacific from Vietnam to New
York for $675 (£534), rather than the standard $16,000.
The flight offer was picked up by Gary Leff, a travel
blogger, who wrote: “Oh my goodness - this is an amazing fare. You can fly Cathay
Pacific’s from Vietnam to US starting at $675.”
Leff warned his readers not to book any additional
travel or hotels around the deal, as he suspected Cathay “might get seller’s
remorse” and not honour the fares. “I would wait a few days after buying
additional travel or making additional non-refundable plans around the fare,”
he said.
Another blog, One Mile at a Time, saw it was possible
to buy first-class flights from Hanoi to Vancouver for $988 return. In a
blogpost it said “Wow! Hurry, this won’t last.” There were also first-class return
flights from Hong Kong to New York offered for $1,450. The price of those
flights is more than $31,000.
It turned out to be a ticketing error, but Cathay
Pacific promised to honour the sale. “Yes – we made a mistake, but we will not go
back on our promise to our customers. We look forward to welcoming you onboard
with your ticket issued!”
The airline did not respond to requests for comment
about the number of flights sold at the steep discount. Cathay has removed all
business and first-class flights for August – the month of the cut-price fares
– from its website, but the same flights in September are listed for $16,000.
The South China Morning Post tracked down 11
passengers who collectively bought 18 first and business-class tickets at the
discounted prices. They paid a total of £21,700 for flights that should have
cost £540,000.
It is not the first time airlines have mistakenly
offered premium-class flights at economy prices. Singapore Airlines made the
error in 2014 and Hong Kong Airlines last year, and both honoured the errors. But in 2015, United Airlines cancelled hundreds of tickets it sold for $100 by mistake. United
said it would not honour the fares because the error was caused by a
“third-party software provider”.
And off-topic last year, Cathay Pacific had to repaint one
of its Boeing 777-367 jets after customers noticed the airline had spelled its
name wrong – “Cathay Paciic”.
From The Guardian
