Cathay Pacific has learnt an expensive lesson.
Cathay Pacific has broken its silence, saying it will honour thousands of business and first class tickets mistakenly sold at economy prices.
Customers who snapped up the tickets were left in the dark for 24 hours after the mistake was revealed.
However, Cathay Pacific yesterday tweeted that customers who bought the tickets would be welcomed onto their flights.
The South China Morning Post anticipates that the decision to honour the tickets could end up costing the airline millions.
The offer for the cheap business class tickets lit up the internet in the new year with frequent fliers and bargain hunters alike buying tickets quickly as word spread across social media and popular flight blogging websites and forums.
The carrier, one of Asia's leading premium airlines, offered return business and first class seats from Vietnam to North America at the very low prices of HK$5300 ($1000) and HK$6,600 ($1255) respectively. The airfares have since been withdrawn from its website.
After news broke, attention turned to whether Cathay will honour the tickets, which typically sell for HK$35,000 ($6655) in business or HK$55,000 ($10,500) in first class for a return flight.
Read more:
• Cathay Pacific red-faced after selling first class flight for economy prices
Pricing errors could be covered under contract law in Hong Kong, leaving the sale of the tickets voidable at the behest of the seller. In the United States, the Department of Transportation says airlines can cancel fares if an error is proven.
Last summer, Hong Kong Airlines suffered a similar error, and set the bar high by honouring its mistake. It sold business class tickets for HK$4600 ($875) for return flights from Los Angeles to both Shanghai and Bangkok. The airline was widely praised after it admitted to the error but said it would cover all bookings. As of Tuesday, the same tickets were selling for HK$30,000.
New York-based Chris Dong, who writes about airlines on the Point Me To The Plane website, was getting ready for his new year celebration when he got wind of the cheap Cathay fares. He got a first class ticket from Da Nang in Vietnam to John F Kennedy airport in New York for HK$6600.
"While they are becoming less common, I've seen a handful of business class and economy fare deals before," he said.
"First class deals are way less common - many airlines simply don't have a first class and if they do, their pricing is heavily guarded so the odds of a 'deal' coming around are really rare."
- Additional reporting taken from earlier report in South China Morning Post
Scott Carr has had many leadership roles over a 35-year span.