Qantas Glitch Offers Travelers a Rare Opportunity for Discounted First-Class Flights
Last Thursday, a rare opportunity arose for travelers in Australia as a glitch on the Qantas website resulted in heavily discounted first-class round-trip tickets to the United States. Normally priced at up to 28,000 Australian dollars (approximately $19,000), these luxurious flights were briefly available for as low as $3,400, a staggering 85% discount. The coding error was quickly corrected, but not before around 300 fortunate customers secured the deal of a lifetime.
Qantas, recognizing the mistake, acknowledged the error in a statement, noting, “Unfortunately, this is a case where the fare was actually too good to be true.” However, rather than canceling the tickets, the airline decided to turn a potential PR disaster into an opportunity for goodwill. Passengers who purchased the tickets will be rebooked in business class at no additional cost. Those who prefer not to downgrade can opt for a full refund instead.
For context, a business-class flight between Australia and the United States typically costs around $11,000, so while the rebooking isn’t as extraordinary as the original deal, it still offers substantial value.
This situation isn’t Qantas’ first brush with controversy. Just last year, the airline faced a lawsuit from Australian regulators for selling tickets on over 8,000 flights that had already been canceled. The fallout from that incident impacted more than 86,000 passengers, leading to a settlement of nearly $80 million, with over $13 million directed towards compensating affected customers. The airline’s CEO, Vanessa Hudson, publicly acknowledged the misstep, admitting that the company had “let our customers down.”
Such pricing errors are not uncommon in the airline industry. In 2019, Cathay Pacific famously honored a similar mistake, selling first- and business-class seats from Vietnam to North America for as low as $675 round-trip. However, not all airlines follow suit. American Airlines, for instance, declined to honor first-class tickets mistakenly sold for economy-class prices in 2010, offering $200 vouchers instead. Similarly, British Airways refused to honor $40 flights from North America to India in 2009, opting to provide $300 vouchers as compensation.
In the end, while Qantas’ coding error may have caused a stir, the airline’s decision to rebook customers in business class or offer full refunds demonstrates a commitment to maintaining customer trust, even in the face of costly mistakes.
