Fly Emirates and save $200, suggests Air NZ

An embarrassing computer glitch has left Air New Zealand offering cheap seats on arch-rival Emirates.

Visitors to the Air NZ website this week who asked for cheap deals on business-class seats between Auckland and Brisbane were shown a deal on our national carrier for $1747, followed by the words, "Consider these Low Fare Options."

The site then shows details of an Emirates deal nearly $200 cheaper.

The glitch will be particularly galling for Air NZ chief executive Ralph Norris, who has frequently criticised Emirates since it first flew to New Zealand in 2003.

Emirates has rejected claims that it fights unfairly, is bankrolled by its oil-rich Government owner and drives down prices by dumping capacity.

Auckland woman Elizabeth Bell, who has been booking tickets on Air NZ's website for several years, said she had been watching closely for good deals on flights to Brisbane and was astounded to see the Emirates flight advertised.

"Our initial thought was that someone had hacked into the site and that someone was playing a joke on Air NZ and putting Emirates flights on."

She said she rang the airline to tell them what was happening, but was unable to get through to anyone who could help.

Air NZ spokeswoman Rosie Paul confirmed that the Emirates flight was shown in error, but had appeared only on a "secondary booking engine" not on the primary homepage used by 99.9 per cent of visitors. Air NZ did not know how many, if any, seats on Emirates had been sold through its website.

Mrs Bell, instead of booking on the main homepage of the Air NZ website, had gone to the "Airfares and Offers" part of the site because it allows her to choose her seat.

Ms Paul said the US-based company that managed this "backup" part of the site had been told of the problem, but due to time differences, had taken a while to fix it.

A check of the website yesterday showed that Emirates booking information had been removed.

Emirates New Zealand manager Chris Lethbridge could not be reached for comment yesterday.