Coding error blamed for cheap first-class Qantas fares sold on airline’s website

A coding error on the Qantas website led to about 300 customers believing they had won the airline equivalent of the lottery.

It’s the sort of “error” most travellers can only dream about.

Logging on to the Qantas website last Thursday, August 22, customers searching for flights between Australia and the US were stunned to find seats in the airline’s first class cabin for about $4350 compared with the usual $29,000 for return flights.

Within eight hours, 300 bookings were made on Qantas.com at the bargain basement fare, before the issue was rectified – and attributed to a coding error.

“Unfortunately this is a case where the fare was actually too good to be true,” a Qantas spokeswoman said.

“As a gesture of goodwill, we’re rebooking customers in business class at no additional cost. Customers also have the option of a full refund.”

Business class aboard a Qantas A380 which, while not first class, is still luxurious.

Even in business class, the lucky 300 have still landed a bargain, as the cheapest business seat on Sydney-to-Los Angeles route sells for about $8000 one way.

According to the terms and conditions of airfares, airlines do not have to honour prices which are clearly offered in error.

However, Qantas was keen to continue to build goodwill among customers after a rocky couple of years, in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A string of controversies including lawsuits, poor operational performance, hard to use travel credits and very public support for the Voice referendum, led to an early exit by former CEO Alan Joyce to allow Vanessa Hudson to begin the “renewal process”.

After Ms Hudson took over, the airline adopted a more conciliatory approach to many aspects of its business in line with her pledge to win back the trust of customers, employees and shareholders.

On Thursday the airline will deliver its full year results, and a strong profit is expected on the back of its half-year gain of $1.24bn.