Qantas Glitch Lets Passengers Book 1st-Class Seats At Over 80% Discount. 'Coding Error' Blamed

Qantas has said it won't be able to honour the bookings, and will instead offer the affected passengers a downgrade — a business-class ticket at no extra cost — or a full refund. 

The low price was up on the website for around 8 hours, which allowed at least 300 passengers to book tickets.

Source : Wikimedia Commons

At least 300 passengers were able to book extremely cheap first-class tickets for a round trip between Australia and the US thanks to a coding error on the booking portal of Qantas Airways. The error allowed tickets that usually cost nearly Rs 16 lakh to be available for less than Rs 3 lakh for an eight-hour window last Thursday. However, the Australian airline has said it won't be able to honour the bookings, and will instead offer the affected passengers a downgrade — a business-class ticket at no extra cost — or a full refund. 

According to a report by The Independent, the airline’s terms and conditions state that if mistakes are made and incorrect fares are displayed that are “reasonably obvious”, they can cancel the booking. 

"As a gesture of goodwill, we’re rebooking customers in business-class at no additional cost. Customers also have the option of a full refund," Qantas said in a statement, according to the Independent.

Qantas said the option to fly business class still signified a 65% discount in comparison to the usual fares.

A first-class ticket allows passengers access to airport lounges, champagne recommended by a sommelier, a large seat and bedding on the aircraft, a chance to peruse a pillow menu, and other amenities.

According to the Independent, the Qantas Airways' mistake got traction after a post started to circculate on OzBargain, an online bargain-hunting community forum. The post speculated that it was likely an error but still worth a try. 

A customer said that he heard about the deal from a friend, and that he was happy that he managed to end up with a business-class seat for less than usual, according to news.com.au.

This is not the first time such an error has been reported.

A CNN report noted that, in 2019, Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific “offered first- and business-class seats from Vietnam to North American cities for as low as $675 round-trip”.

The carrier, however, honoured the deal, tweeting #promisemadepromisekept and #lessonlearnt on its X account, the report added.