United will honor super-cheap tickets sold by mistake
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United Airlines announced it will honor the ultra-cheap fares sold Thursday after a computing error offered tickets for as low as $2.50.
The error was the result of wrong information punched into the airline’s reservation system, resulting in tickets that were essentially free, except for a $2.50 security fee charged for each leg of a flight.
United passengers reported buying round-trip tickets from Washington to Austin, Texas, for only $5.
The error was caught Thursday afternoon but not before the airline reservation system sold the super-cheap tickets for up to two hours. United Airlines officials declined to disclose how many tickets were sold during that period.
The airline shut down the reservation system briefly Thursday to fix the problem.
After the error was repaired, several ticket holders lobbied United on the carrier’s Twitter feed, urging the airline to honor the cheap tickets.
“We’ve reviewed the error that occurred yesterday and based on these specific circumstances, we will honor the tickets,” United announced on Twitter.
The response on the social media site was mostly positive.
“One of my friends got a $5 ticket to Vegas through that United error that they’re honoring now. I spent more on a new toothbrush,” Herin Joshi of Houston posted on Twitter.
@united great news for the lucky ones — Michael A. Smith (@MikeSmithMedia) September 13, 2013
@united Can you replicate that error really quick and let me test it out to make sure you replicated the error correctly? — Jordan (@jordanloyd) September 13, 2013
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