By Helena Kelly Consumer Reporter For Dailymail.Com
19:30 19 Apr 2023, updated 20:29 19 Apr 2023
A Japanese airline accidentally sold dozens of business class Asia-US flights for just a fraction of their price due to a currency exchange rate blunder – including a $10,000 ticket for just $300.
Travelers raced to the All Nippon Airways (ANA) website this week to snap up the bargain fares, with one passenger paying just $890 for first class flights from Indonesian capital Jakarta to the Caribbean via Tokyo and New York and back again.
The 14,500-kilometer journey in first class would usually set customers back $16,300.
In another example, customers bagged a round-trip from Jakarta to Tokyo via New York for $350 – a fraction of its original $10,400 price tag.
And tickets for a flight starting in Jakarta and including stops in Singapore, Tokyo and New York were listed for $300 when they should have been $10,000.
An ANA spokesman originally told Bloomberg it would uphold the bookings – though later backtracked and said an official decision had not yet been made.
It added a ruling would be reached by the end of the month – meaning the discounted tickets will be valid for people who fly before then.
The airline did not state how many people had managed to secure the cheap tickets while the glitch was live.
The bug stemmed from a mistake on the company’s Vietnam website but it was quickly picked up by travel sites and forums such as Secret Flying, which encouraged customers to take advantage of the deal.
The majority of the tickets were for travel from Indonesian capital Jakarta to Japan, with many involving stops in New York, Singapore, Bali and Tokyo.
Almost all were for business class seats – though the $890 deal was a first-class trip.
This ticket was snapped up by Herman Yip, who runs a travel website.
Meanwhile Johnny Wong, 29, said he was able to bag a return ticket from Jakarta to Honolulu via Tokyo.
He told Bloomberg: ‘I never thought I’d catch such a deal.’
Airlines – and other retailers – often accidentally discount prices on their website due to glitches.
The issue is so common there are dedicated travel websites and forums devoted to catching them and spreading the news.
In 2019 Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd accidentally sold first and business class tickets from Vietnam to the US for $675, down from their intended price of $16,000.
