A currency conversion error saw a major airline unwittingly sell heavily discounted airfares between Asia and North America – and observant travellers were quick to snap them up.
Mostly available for travel from Jakarta (via Japan) to New York and back to various Southeast Asian destinations, the fares were sold through the All-Nippon Airways (ANA) website, with normally US$10,000 (around AU$14,800) business class seats going for as low as US$300 (AU$445), several people told Bloomberg News.
One opportunist nabbed around US$250,000 (about AU$370,000) worth of airline tickets for just US$17,000 (AU$25,000).
Speaking to Bloomberg, 32-year-old travel website owner, Herman Yip said he grabbed 25 tickets for a fraction of their usual cost, including a first-class round trip from Jakarta to Aruba, via Tokyo and New York, for only US$890 (AU$1,320). Such a trip would usually cost almost 20 times as much.
Airline worker Johnny Wong was another who took advantage of the mistake, buying a return business class fare from Jakarta to Honolulu via Tokyo Narita Airport for 13 million Vietnamese dong (AU$825).
“I never thought I’d catch such a deal,” Wong said of the fare that is normally worth US$8,200 (AU$12,200).
After news of the glitch, unsurprisingly, spread quickly on social media, ANA Holdings said the mistake was related to an error on the carrier’s Vietnam website.
It added that it was “investigating the cause of the bug and the size of its damage” without going into details about how many discounted fares it sold.
While an airline spokesperson initially said ANA would honour the tickets, they later stated it would make a final decision before the end of April.
Those who fly on the discounted tickets before the decision date will still be able to do so.
Deja-vu
In 2019, Cathay Pacific inadvertently sold (and honoured) first and business-class tickets from Vietnam to the US for as low as US$675 (AU$1,000), a fraction of the US$16,000 (AU$23,800) they were normally worth.
In December 2022, All Nippon Airways (ANA) marked seven years of flying between Sydney and Tokyo Haneda at a big event held at Sydney Airport.
Earlier this year, ANA unveiled its return to Perth, while also increasing Sydney flights.
