Cathay Confirms $675 Business Class Pricing Error
January 2, 2019
Cathay Pacific admitted a flight pricing error on its website that offered premium class tickets on some flights at economy rates and confirmed it would stand by the price.
The mistake meant some people were able to book business class travel between Vietnam and New York for USD$675, instead of the $16,000 it would normally cost.
Cathay confirmed in a tweet that it would honour the advertised price and looked forward to welcoming the lucky people on board. “Hope this will make your 2019 special too!”, the airline said.
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!
— Cathay Pacific (@cathaypacific) January 2, 2019
.#promisemadepromisekept #lessonlearnt
The pricing error was spotted and publicised by some travel blogs and quickly taken down by Cathay, but not before several people had taken advantage of the airline’s unplanned New Year giveaway.
The error capped a difficult year for the Hong Kong airline. Cathay has followed two years of annual losses with a first half loss in the current financial year.
It also suffered a major data breach during the year where personal information on millions of its passengers was accessed. The airline was criticised for not divulging the breach until several months after the event.