Qantas mistakenly sells 300 first class tickets far too cheap

«Error fares» is the name given to airline fares that are accidentally published far too cheaply. Last week, Qantas made a notable mistake by publishing First Class fares between Sydney and Los Angeles at around 85 percent below their usual price.

Instead of the equivalent of 11,500 francs for a first-class ticket across the Pacific and back, Qantas put the flights online for 2,800 francs, which is also 65 percent less than the business class fare. The frequent flyer website www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au became aware of this in the middle of last week and informed its readers. And they were quick to act: after eight hours, 300 tickets had already been purchased at the bargain price.

Qantas speaks of «coding error»

Thanks to Australian consumer law, Qantas discovered a loophole and managed to mitigate the situation. The airline reached out to customers who had purchased the error fare, informing them that: «We have discovered that your booking was affected by this error and are now contacting you with an important update on your booking. We sincerely apologize for this error.» And in a statement, a Qantas spokesperson said it was a case of «where the price is too good to be true», citing a coding error as the reason.

«As a gesture of goodwill, we are rebooking customers to Business Class at no additional cost», the spokesperson said. «Customers also have the option of a full refund.» As a result, the 300 customers who booked will now receive a Business Class ticket valued at 8,000 francs for 2,800 francs, but the First Class flight will not take place.

According to the Australian Consumer Law, companies are entitled to withdraw an offer or product from sale in order to correct inaccurate prices or other incorrect information. The Consumer Law does not require companies to honor falsely advertised offers.