In a recent ticketing blunder Cathay Pacific sold first- and business-class tickets to travellers for the price of economy fares.Now the lucky few who made the bookings will enjoy the travel in style.
Cathay Pacific Airways is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport.
The Hong Kong-based airline said on its Twitter and Facebook pages Wednesday that it would still greet its passengers that bought the business-class tickets from Vietnam to Canada and the US at economy prices earlier this week. The online ticketing foul-up meant return fares of as low as $US675 ($964) from Da Nang in Vietnam to New York at the front end of the plane, or a small fraction of its original price.
“We do not want to go back on our promise to our customers,” Cathay said on its Twitter account. “We made a mistake but we look forward to welcoming you on board with your ticket issued.”Here it is how it revealed on its Twitter account:
Happy 2019 all, and to those who bought our good – VERY good surprise ‘special’ on New Year’s Day, yes – we made a mistake but we look forward to welcoming you on board with your ticket issued. Hope this will make your 2019 ‘special’ too!
.#promisemadepromisekept #lessonlearnt
Though the passengers were kept cheerful, the mistake adds to the embarrassments for the carrier that’s struggling to turn its fortunes around while rivalry builT up from Chinese and budget airlines. The pricing blunder comes on the heels of a sophisticated hack on Cathay’s computer systems last year that exposed private information of 9.4 million passengers in the world’s biggest airline data breach.
Cathay had sold tickets to the U.S. and other destinations from Vietnam in a promotional offer that ended Dec. 31, according to its website.
Gary Leff, a travel and loyalty-program blogger on View from the Wing, wrote on Dec. 31 that the Cathay business-class round-trip from Da Nang to New York started at $675 for travel in August. On Wednesday, the same journey cost around $US16,000 for July and September, according to the airline’s website. Prices weren’t available for August.Round trip business tickets to Los Angeles were sold from $2,940.
In previous years other airlines too made similar pricing errors . Singapore Airlines Ltd. in 2014 and Hong Kong Airlines Ltd. last year honored business-class tickets mistakenly sold at economy fares. However,the carriers didn’t reveal the number of passengers purchased the cheaper tickets.
