UAL Ooops... sold first-class tickets to HK for 4 FF miles on Sunday

[TangoWhiskey]

http://blogs.wsj.com/middleseat/201...ets-it-sold-for-4-miles/?mod=google_news_blog

People were able to buy RT first class tickets for 4 (FOUR) frequent flyer miles + taxes & fees on Sunday, due to a pricing mistake by UAL. DOT is investigating, because consumer fair ticketing rules now state that an airline can't cancel a ticket it sold or booked, even if it was done with a fare offered by mistake.

 

[Rigged4Flight]

That is awesome.

 

[comanchepilot]

thats called a fat finger fare and they will take those tickets away . . . they do it all the time. . . .

 

[Unbeliever]

thats called a fat finger fare and they will take those tickets away . . . they do it all the time. . . .

In this case, the fares are protected by law once they issued a confirmation.

They haven't cancelled any tickets yet, and that's why the DOT is involved now.

In January, the DOT prohibited airlines from increasing the price of air transportation after a purchase was made. The concern originated with airlines imposing new baggage fees retroactively on consumers already ticketed. But the DOT also included airline “mistake fares’’ in Section 399.88(a), saying that once a confirmation is issued, “the seller of the air transportation cannot increase the price of that air transportation to that consumer, even when the fare is a “mistake.’’’ The rule applies to frequent-flier tickets as well, DOT said, and airlines can’t circumvent the rule by writing an exception into their “contract of carriage” — the legal rules that they apply to tickets.

--Carlos V.

 

[Anymouse]

I'm curious as to just how many tickets were "purchased" with those 4 frequent flier miles.