Error fares

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Viewing 14 posts - 16 through 29 (of 29 total)

  • AMcWhirter
    Participant

    LP –

    Yes SIA was mentioned here earlier and also see my earlier posting on this thread.


    Senator
    Participant

    BA has now started to cancel flights ex.Germany. I suspect the lack of transit via US enables them more legal headway as the US DOT has been known to rule in favour of consumers. More to follow…


    1nfrequent
    Participant

    Martyn – many thanks for the information. I’ll keep an eye on Kayak.

    Apologies for any thread derail.

    1F


    peter19
    Participant

    Senator is right seems BA have started cancelling the fares to oz. AA however announced its error fares recently out of Brazil I think it was will all be honoured..This also ties in with AA error fares out of Oslo to the US which were also honoured lately.


    MarcusGB
    Participant

    I fully agree re the Ex Europe fares, of which many of us have commented on over a long period of time. I know many of you used ex EU for BA fares long haul in premium cabins.

    But we need to “Switch On” to the huge savings from the EU now the Euro is so poor and changed from a time when it was almost 1-1, three years ago, to 1.4+ now! These are as good as “Error fares…but I am jealous of those that got them and validated!

    KLM offer worldwide flights in World Business Class, from E1,709 to Bangkok, through to about E2,001 to Santiago Chile. Just book 3 months ahead.

    https://www.klm.com/travel/nl_en/plan_and_book/special_offers/world_business_class/index.htm

    You would be lucky with a good Airline to get this in £’s from LHR, and at least we do not pay the huge Government tax from the UK.

    I fly much with Etihad these days, and i always look at Ex CDG, AMS, DUB, and LHR for all fares. I once bought a return Business from CDG through AUH to SYD for £1,500 return! This included chauffeur cars, a free stopover 2 for 1 in AUH and the excellence that Etihad offer as a “Guest” not a passenger. This entails a far different service and atmosphere aboard and on the ground.

    Currently, fares Ex LHR in November from LHR – SYD with or without stopovers, are £3,700+ for Business Studios.
    From Dublin (albeit a 332 or 777 business Pearl style to AUH), it is £2,100!!!
    Buy a return LCY to Dublin for £99, and you save a huge £1,500 per person, same as CDG, AMS.

    CDG often have First offers or one way First, using A346 and 777’s but AUH to SYD have an A380 once a day, to change to twice daily soon.

    They also start 789 Dreamliners to Singapore in a few weeks, 3 class. I have a flight from Amsterdam, with stopovers and the 787 AUH-SIN-AUH, for £1,200 on a “Breaking fare” return offer.

    They have recently introduced a restriction on “Z” class fares, which do not give the cars or stopover rates , but the W fare tends to be only £1-£200 more.

    I am very happy to avoid chaotic and rude LHR, and travel long haul from LCY, and undramatic and reliable start and finish. It also means a huge savings in taxes to The Government, some of the most expensive in The world.

    Most Airlines will be reflected from EU in a great Euro savings for premium classes, due to the currency drop now.


    AMcWhirter
    Participant

    Recently both American and United sold a number of “error fares.”

    But American has just agreed to honour these error fares whereas United has not.

    http://airwaysnews.com/blog/2015/08/28/american-airlines-will-allow-recent-mistake-fares-to-fly/

    Here’s the US DOT’s ruling on error fares.

    http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-trb-airline-mistake-fares-dot-ruling-20150511-story.html


    SimonS1
    Participant

    I believe this week’s cock up by BA was fares from Prague to Mexico for £479 in F. The inevitable cancellations now starting to happen.

    This is the 3rd major screw up by BA in 3 weeks. A pity their chief apologist VK isn’t still around 🙂


    DerekVH
    Participant

    I have been looking to book flights with BA to SFO in May 2016 and F is coming up cheaper than CW !


    rferguson
    Participant

    I’ve had two ‘mistake fare’ incidents.

    One was with TG from LHR – BKK. Basically someone somewhere put an economy fare in the system with a business class coding. It was complicated by the fact that I had booked the ticket with lastminute.com. Lastminute passed the buck to TG. TG passed the buck back to lastminute. In short, neither wanted to honour the J class fare. After a LONG period of letters backwards and forwards TG agreed to honour the ticket in J class. They did make it explicitly clear however that this was ‘a gesture of goodwill’ not an obligation.

    More recently I booked a ‘mistake fare’ with EY from St Petersburg to Sydney (c£1300 in J class but involved a bizzare routing that allowed me to make a return flight to BKK from AUH as part of the routing). The reaction from EY could not be more different than TG. EY simply cancelled the tickets without notification at all – a week after knowing it was a ‘mistake’ fare. A complaint that I made to EY (the tickets were booked directly on Etihad.com) has gone without any answer whatsoever. The cancellation caused quite a stir in Russia where people were picketing the EY offices! I saw a link on youtube where the local news channel picked the story up and EY issued a statement saying people ‘manipulated’ a flaw in it’s booking system! Not a single apology. I have to say that it has really given me a negative view of EY and despite their ‘flying reimagined’ tagline and bling i’d be reluctant to ever fly them. Their customer service seems very very poor when things go wrong (to the point of them just not answering you).

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPphDZJfF3o&feature=youtu.be

    The unfortunate fact is that as soon as you tick that little ‘I agree to the terms and conditions’ box when booking a ticket you are agreeing to conditions that are heavily tilted to the airlines benefit.

    I think airlines have also been a bit tougher with honouring ‘mistake fares’ as the Supreme Court in the US ruled a few months ago that UA did not act unlawfully by cancelling a load of mistake fares.


    CityRiskBoy
    Participant

    I took an error fare flight a few years ago when travelling to SFO on business, in searching online I found a ANZ flight from LHR-LAX on their new 777-300 in business premier for £1300 return, apparently some idiot had loaded the wrong fares to the system, when my company’s travel agent called ANZ direct they said they would honour the flight if I booked it immed and on the understanding that it was non-refundable…….obviously my travel dates were set so snapped it up. It was one of my fav flights in business class and have travelled again with them a few times since……so their little error bought a customer!


    SimonS1
    Participant

    @rferguson – seems that BA are following the EY approach – most people have yet to hear from the airline, and of course whilst BA was able up take their cash in a matter of seconds it always seems to be much longer to give it back.

    Bearing in mind this has now happened 3 weeks running with fares from Norway, Prague and Germany respectively it makes you wonder about the general level of competence.


    Theodorus
    Participant

    A friend of mine booked the “error“ fare from Germany to Australia with British Airways First class for € 1800,00 He got E-tickets and seatnumbers but after a few days they cancelled the booking. He phoned BA Service Center and they rebooked him because of his air Berlin Gold Status.
    Unfortunately he got an email from BA again that the booking was cancelled


    IanFromHKG
    Participant

    Theodorus, would you mind sharing with us the justification BA provided for your friend’s cancellation? Although there is wording in the package holiday Conditions of Carriage allowing cancellation for mistake fares, I didn’t find the same wording in the general conditions of carriage: http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/legal/british-airways/general-conditions-of-carriage


    Theodorus
    Participant

    I will ask him. Hope he still has the info from BA

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