(benh57)
Airline Reporter points to a post from Aug. 20 on Flyertalk that shared the workaround with fellow customers.
The fares were achieved in part by changing the country of origin to Brazil: One Flyertalk user posted a screenshot of a round-trip business class ticket on American from Sao Paulo to Hong Kong for R$1,255 Brazilian Reals (BRL), or approximately $350 U.S. dollars. Usually that fare would cost R$12,000 or about $3,350 in U.S. currency.
It’s thought that perhaps the error was caused by transposed currency values when the data was entered, causing the U.S. dollar to be highly overvalued against BRLs. Currently, R$1.00 is about $0.29 U.S. Switch those two around and bang, you’ve got a discount.
American apparently had a few mistake airfares squeak through on a variety of international routes with ridiculous discounts on tickets, though it’s unclear exactly how many customers got away with it. The airline caught the slip quickly, but those that managed to pull a fast one will be able to fly for a tenth of the price.
American confirmed in a statement to Airline Reproter that it “will honor mispriced fares that were booked last week,” adding that it hopes “customers enjoy their experience with American and book with us again in the future.”
This stands in stark contrast to United, which blamed a software glitch for allowing travelers to get cheap fares by setting the reservation site to Denmark and then refused to honor those fares. Its decision was backed by the Department of Transportation, which said United was off the hook because those fares weren’t meant for U.S. citizens in the first place.
The DOT said then that its policy is to not enforce the prohibition against post-purchase price increases “when the fare offer is not marketed to consumers in the United States.”
Even more reason to enjoy that flight, you lucky folks.
American Airlines Mistakenly Discounts Airfare by 90% – Then What? [Airline Reporter]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist