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A technical glitch on Qantas’ booking website has resulted in around 300 passengers booking first-class seats for a fraction of the price.
The mistake last week, blamed on a “coding error”, saw first-class tickets to the US published for sale at around an 85 per cent discount, and remained up for eight hours before being corrected.
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According to reports in The Australian, the fares – which usually cost around $20,000 to $29,000 return – were on sale for approximately $4,350.
Qantas will not fly the affected passengers in first class, as the seats were clearly advertised in error; however, a spokesperson said passengers who booked the tickets will instead be offered seats in business class, which will still be around a 65 per cent discount from the normal price.
“Unfortunately, this is a case where the fare was actually too good to be true,” the spokesperson said.
“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 will release its full-year results for the 2023–24 financial year on Thursday. The Flying Kangaroo saw a half-year underlying profit before tax of $1.25 billion for the first half of the financial year despite cost-of-living pressures and rising inflation.
In a statement to the ASX, Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson insisted in February she had heard customers’ recent feedback of the airline “loud and clear”.
“There’s a lot of work happening to lift our service levels, and the early signs are really positive,” she said. “Our customer satisfaction scores have bounced back strongly since December, and we have more service and product improvements in the pipeline.
“Having the financial strength to keep investing is key, and that makes the strong performance that all business units had in the first half so important.”
The results revealed that lower fares charged in the six months to December had a $600 million impact on profit.
However, the shortfall was mostly offset by the airline increasing its capacity. Qantas added that travel remained strong across all sectors and business was now close to approaching pre-COVID levels.
Murray Joel
says:Advertised fare, whether ‘coding error’ or not, should be honoured. Hardly the fault of the punters…..
[email protected]
says:I think Qantas was admirable in providing a discounted business class fare as an alternative. They were not legally obliged to do so, (see the fine print in the terms and conditions).