Computer Glitch Gives Some Lucky Fliers Cheap Air Fares

American Airlines officials are unsure how an old discount fare was reloaded into a computer reservation system, allowing travelers to book round-trip flights to anywhere in the country for $152.

Travel agents with access to American’s Sabre reservations system discovered the snafu early Thursday, and booked an untold number of delighted clients, the airline said.

The vaunted Sabre, which feeds flight, reservation and ticketing information to 14,000 travel agencies worldwide, has been at the center of two other scheduling fiascoes.

In 1988, American said it lost an estimated $50 million in potential sales when a faulty Sabre program prematurely cut off sales of discount tickets, and in May of this year the system crashed for about 12 hours, leaving travel agencies with blank screens.

American spokesman John Hotard said the airline was investigating how a promotional fare offered for several days after the Fourth of July holiday made an unscheduled reappearance, complete with a new expiration date of Sept. 30.

“Somebody just loaded it in by mistake,” Hotard told the Dallas Morning News. “Once we found out, we started pulling it out of most of the markets.”

American had not determined the financial effect of the mistake or how many passengers booked flights under the bogus fare before the error was corrected by mid-afternoon Thursday, Hotard said.

But American will honor all tickets issued under the $152 fare, he said.

About the only restriction for the fare was that it required a Saturday-night stay over. But not even an advance purchase was required.

“We ticketed as many as we could,” said Michele McKechnie, co-owner of Elite Travel Inc. in Arlington, Tex. “We booked 25 to 30 people--whoever was lucky enough to call while it was in there. They’re getting a cheap vacation.”