AA mistake offers First to Oz for $1198
7th Jan 2010
American Airlines has offered First Class fares between the USA and Australia for less than the price of an economy ticket. It is a fare that was first revealed on www.airreview.com several days ago, for a fare that offered flights from San Francisco to Melbourne in First Class for just over £753GBP (AUD$1302, US$1198). The normal fare should have been between ten and twenty times that.
The flight is on Qantas' A380 service from Melbourne to Los Angeles, which is code-shared by American Airlines, in the First Class cabin. AA appear to have mistakenly priced the fare much lower than the normal regular fare. One agent contacted by airreview suggests that because Qantas charge almost exactly ten times the cost for a First Class return of what American Airlines were charging ($1,198, in the US currency), the fare may have been created by missing a digit. however when Airreview visited the relevant airlines ticketing office in Melbourne, they suggest that the fare should not have been made available, as it was for staff only. However, as the fare appeared on the their systems, they sold several tickets to Airreview on Monday. Analysis of the tickets shows it is in "A" class, which Qantas confirmed was First Class.
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Qantas A380 First Class seats |
The fare has also appeared on other online booking agents, such as www.expedia.co.uk, www.orbitz.com and other sites in the US. As it further propogated though American Airlines IT systems, by Tuesday the fare was also available from New York and Seattle, and then began to become available to Sydney (via a Qantas domestic flight).
During Thursday the fare was available from Los Angeles to Sydney.
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Orbitz booking when the fare was still available |
Details of the fare also appeared on forums for Frequent Flyer mileage collectors, and at that point within hours almost all availability disappeared as a booking frenzy developed. The fare was removed from AA.com late on Thurday afternoon (Australian time).
Airreview has asked for a statement from Qantas, however its public affairs office in Sydney has refused to comment so far. A check for the next two months shows there is now very little availabilty in First Class on this route, with one travel agent saying there were no first class seats available at all on several flights.
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>>> Review with passenger opinions on Qantas' A380 First Class cabin & seats. |
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>>> Seatmap: Qantas A380 Seating Plan. |
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However American Airlines says that customers with the tickets will instead be offered seats in economy, and as an expression of goodwill, they can buy new tickets in first or business class at about 60 percent of the regular fares. For those cancelling their tickets, AA is also offering US$200 vouchers which can be used for new AA tickets for a year.
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