China Southern Airlines honours $1.40 mistake fares after glitch
China Southern Airlines will honour customers’ tickets after a systems glitch caused super cheap ‘mistake fares’ to be sold for $1.40.
Fares were snapped up for 10 Yuan.
The glitch seemed to mostly affect domestic flights to and from the city of Chengdu.
Reuters reported esamples of Beijing to Chengdu flights sold for 10 Yuan, 40 times less than the average fare.
‘Mistake fares’ are not rare but an airline holding up its hands and taking the financial hit is.
Most airlines have cancelled bookings as soon as they became aware of the mistake.
“All flight tickets that have been paid and issued during the system glitch will be valid and travellers can use them normally,” the airline said.
It described it as a ‘system abnormality.’
American Airlines, BA, Air New Zealand and others have suffered glitches in its booking systems in recent years, and they all moved quickly to cancel reservations.
Apparently, screenshots of the China Southern mistake fares were posted on social media, causing a rush of bookings from opportunistic customers.
The exact number of cheap mistake fares purchased during the glitch is unknown.
TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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