United Airlines says it will not honor thousands of tickets sold Wednesday morning after a vendor mistake caused first-class flights from England to the U.S. to be marked down to as little as $69.
“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,” an airline spokesperson told CNN.
United would not disclose the exact number of people who purchased the tickets, CNN said.
Travel bloggers and chat room members of the Flyertalk website, a popular site for frequent travelers, began talking about the glitch early Wednesday. By 9:30 a.m. ET the deal was no longer available, CNN reported.
Some passengers were able to book first-class flights from London to Washington D.C., Newark, Honolulu and other major cities in the U.S.
Alison Keunen said she was “incredibly disappointed” after learning her $125 ticket from Manchester to Newark would be voided.
“I won’t be choosing United Airlines in the future,” she told Bloomberg in an email. “There are so many other airlines out there, so I think it was a bad move for them to make.”
United has decided to honor mistake fares in the past. In September 2013 the airline honored an undisclosed number of tickets after a booking error on its website caused tickets to be marked down to $0.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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