United Airlines computer glitch sells cheap first class tickets

CUSTOMERS of this airline couldn’t believe their luck when a computer glitch sold them first class tickets for as low as $97. So what went wrong?

Airline glitch sells first class for $97

A COMPUTER glitch on a US airline’s website meant passengers were able to snap up first class fares for as low as $97.

United Airlines sold several thousand first class tickets at ridiculously low prices after an error with their currency conversion rate was exposed by travel bloggers early on Wednesday morning.

A bug in the system meant that if users changed their host country to Denmark on the website, they were able to book a return trip between London’s Heathrow Airport and New York’s Newark Liberty International Airport for 491 Danish kroner, about $97, a discount of more than $6,000.

It was several hours before United Airlines realised the mistake by which time lucky passengers had taken to Twitter to express their delight.

Woo just got Business Class return flights from London to Newark airport for fifty quid… http://t.co/DxZ2qveOM1

— Sam Bowman (@s8mb) February 11, 2015

Woohoo just booked flights to LA at Christmas for just €90 return!!! Quick grab this deal on United Airlines... http://t.co/FNLYamvDAy

— Nellie Huang (@WildJunket) February 11, 2015

Passengers couldn’t wait to finally fly up the pointy end.

However after temporarily suspending sales from the Danish website, United has since announced it will not honour the dirt cheap fares, releasing the following statement.

“United is voiding the bookings of several thousand individuals who were attempting to take advantage of an error a third-party software provider made when it applied an incorrect currency exchange rate, despite United having properly filed its fares. Most of these bookings were for travel originating in the United Kingdom, and the level of bookings made with Danish Kroner as the local currency was significantly higher than normal during the limited period that customers made these bookings.”

We will void the bookings for those who purchased tickets as a result of a third-party currency conversion error. http://t.co/KBaXBJCwoQ

— United (@united) February 11, 2015