Cathay Pacific re-runs New Year tickets gaffe as it sells first-class travel for economy prices
Passengers flying on Cathay Pacific were again able to pick up cut-price first class tickets after a bug hit the airline’s website over the weekend.
Tickets from Portugal to Hong Kong were being sold for $1,512 (£1,179) instead of their usual $16,000 on Sunday, the South China Morning Post reported, adding to a list of errors with the company’s booking system over recent months.
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Cathay made headlines just two weeks ago after selling first class tickets between Vietnam and North America for as little as $870, while business class went for $670.
The company said at the time it would honour the bookings, tweeting that it had learnt its lesson.
Happy 2019 all, and to those who bought our good – VERY good surprise ‘special’ on New Year’s Day, yes – we made a mistake but we look forward to welcoming you on board with your ticket issued. Hope this will make your 2019 ‘special’ too!
.#promisemadepromisekept #lessonlearnt— Cathay Pacific (@cathaypacific) January 2, 2019
In a statement on Sunday a spokesperson again promised to let passengers who had benefited from the mistake board their flights.
“We are aware of an error on some fares from Europe on our website because of an input issue. The sale of such fares was stopped immediately,” the spokesperson told the South China Morning Post.
“We are looking into the root cause of this incident both internally and externally with our vendors.
“For the very small number of customers who have purchased these tickets, we look forward to welcoming you on board to enjoy our premium services.”
In October, Cathay was forced to apologise after a data breach affected millions of its passengers.
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Testifying to lawmakers in Hong Kong, Cathay’s chairman John Slosar called it “the most serious [crisis] the airline has faced.”
Cathay Pacific dropped 1.55 per cent on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong this morning.