United Airlines accidentally offered tickets for free or at negligible prices after a computer glitch caused its website to display fares from $0 to $10, Yahoo! reported Thursday.
Reports circulated that an unknown number of United Airlines customers happily purchased their flight tickets after fares displayed online were practically close to nothing.
USA Today reported that the Airlines had said it accidentally filed fares for zero dollars although airport charges were not affected.
"I just booked a couple of round trips from SJC - BOS via IAH in November and December for $10 round trip. Found them on United.com," user Quiltingatty posted on FlyerTalk.com, an air travel online forum.
"UA: IAD - MSP $5 each way Sept 25th/26th... Just went to book this for a work trip and ended up paying $7.50 all in," another user posted.
Meanwhile, Nancy Ilk, a consultant who flies often said she got one of the tickets for only $10 to fly from Minneapolis to Houston and Washington's Reagan National and back in October. She said that the $10 was simply a security fee, and added that she is waiting to find out whether United Airlines will honor her ticket.
Maura Leahy, who lives in Houston, said that she was booking a Christmas trip back to Washington so she could visit her parents, but apparently opted to fly on Friday after finding a wise solution online.
"It was $5 round-trip, no fees, nothing," she said. "This is nuts."
Leahy added that she quickly checked in right away and printed her boarding pass to increase her chances of using the ticket.
As word spread on the cheap online deals, the airline had decided to quickly shut down the booking section of its website and phone centers to contain all the tickets that are being sold.
CTV News reported that the website was up for reservations again at around 2:45 p.m. Central time.
"One of our filings today contained an error which resulted in certain fares displaying as zero," United Continental Holdings Inc. Spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said. "We have corrected this error."
As of late, the airline does not know how many tickets were sold or how to handle the predicament, but McCarthy said, "As always, we will do what is appropriate."
Another incident involving United happened in 2008, when it accidentally dropped a fuel surcharge. The company reportedly honored the tickets sold without the said surcharge.
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