If you thought you could get your hands on a roundtrip ticket from Australia to Los Angeles for a little more than $400, you'd be wise to keep dreaming.
Unfortunately for Australia's flag carrier Qantas, that dream briefly became a reality this week when a computer glitch caused some eye-popping deals to appear on websites like Hopper.com and Skyscanner.com.au, according to Mashable's Jenni Ryall.
Roundtrip tickets for scheduled flights from July to September were shown on Hopper for as low as A$577 ($444). Meanwhile, Skyscanner featured one-way fares for just A$286 ($220) for flights scheduled as far ahead as March 2016.
Skyscanner told Mashable that the low fares were the "result of a promotion or sale running from one of our partners, an online travel agency and the fare is available only on certain dates."
But Qantas confirmed that the ridiculously low fares were in fact the result of a glitch.
"There was a glitch that impacted third party USA-based online booking systems this morning, as we made some fare changes effective 1 July for travel originating in Australia. These mistake fares were incorrectly offered and have been removed from sale. The glitch was fixed at 11.30am AEST and we're currently following up affected bookings," said a Qantas spokesperson in a statement via Mashable.
The airline did not say whether it would honor tickets that were booked for the low prices and it remains to be seen how many travelers could potentially be affected.
This isn't the first time and certainly won't be the last time that travelers are impacted by a computer glitch. Last month a glitch led the U.S. State Department to cease issuance of passports and visas. And in February 2015, a computer glitch resulted in nationwide delays for United Airlines.
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