CANBERRA: An Australian airline became a short-lived passenger favourite when it offered massive discounts to first-class passengers.
The Qantas website showed flights between Australia and the US at a whopping 85% discount for first class passengers on Thursday, prompting almost 300 passengers to book their tickets.
After realizing that a mistake had been made, the airline announced it would honour his offer even though the coding error led to the discount.
The airline has now announced that it will refund or downgrade passengers who were sold heavily discounted first-class flights due to a coding error.
“Unfortunately, this is a case where the fare was actually very good,” an Australian airline spokeswoman said.
Qantas has said it will upgrade passengers who have bought tickets to business class – a step below first class – at no extra cost.
As for the discount, ‘lucky’ passengers have paid a few thousand Australian dollars for tickets that cost more than AUD20,000.
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The airline’s terms and conditions mean that the airline is allowed to cancel the booking and offer a full refund if there is an error or mistake in the fare that is reasonably obvious. However, Qantas decided to honour the erroneous offer.
“As a goodwill gesture, we are rebooking customers in business class at no extra cost. Customers also have the option of a full refund,” Qantas said in a statement.
A passenger traveling in business class will still pay 65 percent less than usual for their ticket, the airline said.
This is not the first time an airline has mistakenly offered discounted fares. In 2019, Cathay Pacific mistakenly sold $16,000 in business class seats for just $675. Ultimately, the airline decided to award tickets to these lucky passengers. However, sometimes, carriers refuse to honour tickets sold due to defects at the discount price.
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