SINGAPORE: Some travellers managed to snap up ANA business class tickets on Tuesday for a fraction of the typical price due to a currency conversion glitch.
"I never thought I'd catch such a deal," customer Johnny Wong told Bloomberg after booking a return business class flight from Jakarta to Honolulu, Hawaii for just US$550. If the airline comes out quickly to address the erroneous fares and cancel the issued tickets, it would then be disingenuous for those who buy them to pretend they are innocent customers who got hoodwinked, said Mr Aaron Wong, the founder of travel website The MileLion.
For example, if only a handful of tickets were sold, and if said tickets were on a limited number of routes and only in economy class, it would be relatively easier for the airline to honour the mistake. Travellers could also change the departing and arriving cities, with a refund value that may be more than the error fare itself, he noted.There is a precedent for airlines cancelling fares sold by mistake. Last year, Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways refused to honour several hundred Sydney-Berlin tickets that were sold for A$336 , following a glitch affecting travel aggregator website Skyscanner.
Those who managed to secure the ultra-cheap ANA tickets will hope the airline follows the lead of Cathay Pacific.The Hong Kong airline eventually honoured the tickets.Customers can still go ahead and purchase tickets, even if the pricing appears to be unusually low, Mr Wong said.