For most of us, flying in business class is something we can only dream about due to the seats’ sky-high prices.
However, some lucky folks managed to snap up the exclusive tickets at just a fraction of their original price thanks to a massive blunder by All Nippon Airways (ANA).
Source: Marcus Ng on Unsplash, for illustration purposes only
An error in currency conversion had reportedly led to business-class tickets being sold for as low as US$300 (S$400).
The Japanese airline is now investigating the cause of the bug.
According to Bloomberg, ANA business-class tickets are usually priced in the high four-figure to five-figure range.
Source: All Nippon Airways
For example, round-trip fares from Jakarta to New York via Tokyo would typically set someone back US$10,400 (S$13,900).
However, at least one person managed to pay just US$350 (S$470) for the seat — cheaper than a long-haul economy flight.
Source: All Nippon Airways via Bloomberg
A US$10,000 (S$13,300) business-class ticket that included a Singapore stopover was also listed for US$300 (S$400).
Someone was even lucky enough to get a ticket in the even fancier first-class cabin for US$890 (S$1,190) instead of the usual US$16,300 (S$21,700).
On Wednesday (19 Apr), ANA Holdings Ltd explained that the unintentional price slash was due to a mistake on the airline’s Vietnam website, which had apparently displayed the wrong currency conversion.
However, the company did not disclose the quantity of heavily discount tickets that were purchased.
It is currently “investigating the cause of the bug and the size of its damage”.
The airline has yet to confirm if it will honour the cheaper tickets and aims to come to a final decision by the end of the month.
In the meantime, the tickets will still be valid for those who travel before then.
A few Singaporeans lucky enough to snag the super cheap tickets told The Straits Times (ST) that they were alerted to the once-in-a-lifetime deal by various Telegram groups.
One man and his two friends managed to secure non-direct flights to New York from Jakarta for S$471.
They even got a S$56 refund after having their flight amended to originate from Singapore.
Bloomberg notes that this isn’t the first time an airline has mistakenly sold first- and business-class tix at rock-bottom rates.
In 2019, Cathay Pacific put first-class tickets from Portugal to Hong Kong on sale for US$1,512 (S$2,000) when it usually costs US$16,000 (S$21,400), the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.
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Featured image adapted from All Nippon Airways on Facebook, for illustration purposes only.
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