That old saying about things being too good to be true? Yeah, that's what happened Wednesday morning for fliers booking flights on United Airlines for obscenely - and, it turns out, erroneous - low fares.
A third-party software glitch in online booking had suddenly made flights, including trans-Atlantic flights, ridiculously cheap. $70. $51. Even $44 in one instance. Several thousand people bought tickets until United realized the error, fixed the glitch - and then sent customers who purchased flights the airline version of the Dear John breakup letter.
Here's how it went down.
On Wednesday morning, a third-party ticket-selling software company mistakenly calculated the currency rate between the British pound and the Danish kroner for flights emanating from the United Kingdom. Suddenly, first-class airfares that were normally priced in the thousands of dollars were selling for far less. Like, really less. The airline blog "The Points Guy" reported buying a ticket from London to Newark-Liberty International Airport in New Jersey for $44 one-way.
Potential travelers could only purchase the fares on the Danish home page of United's website but, through the magic and mayhem that is social media, bloggers and other tech- and travel-savvy people were posting about changing their host country on United's website to Denmark. Although the flights had to originate in the U.K, point of sale was in Denmark.
Voila!
United caught on, eventually, but not before thousands of tickets were purchased. It fixed the glitch, and then on Wednesday night began sending this email out, according to USA Today:
"You purchased a ticket through the Danish version of united.com during the time when the prices were incorrect. As a result, we are not able to honor your ticket at the price that you paid. We have voided your reservation and will not process your payment … If you would like to book your travel at the correct price, please visit united.com."
Oh, well. Good try.
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