British Airways goofs, sells $40 round-trips to India
How’s this for a dream deal: Fly round trip between the U.S. and India for as little as $40, plus taxes, fees and surcharges. For about two hours last week, that dream was reality for untold numbers of British Airways customers who booked these fares. Alas, it was a computer error, and now the carrier is trying to fix it.
“We sincerely apologize,” British Airways spokesman John Lampl said today. “We’re trying to figure out how to best rectify the situation.” He added that it might be taken on a case-by-case basis and involve not only refunds but possibly credits toward other flights.
In an e-mail sent to travel agents today, the airline was more specific.
“As these fares were so clearly below the normal fare levels, British Airways is unable to honor these bookings,” the e-mail said. “We have cancelled all affected bookings made during this two-hour window, and will make a full refund for any paid for and issued ticket.” It also said it would refund any fees associated with rebooking other airline segments on the same ticket.
Meanwhile, Lampl gave us the scoop on how the glitch happened.
“We were filing for a $40 increase in fares between the U.S. and India,” he said. “Somewhere in that process, they eliminated the ‘plus’ sign.” Just where and when is something the airline was still trying to determine, he added.
But the result was clear: Between about 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. PDT on Oct. 2, when the error was caught and fixed, the airline sold U.S.-India round trips for as little as $40. The fares were available between all U.S. cities and all Indian cities, according to the airline.
“It was an honest mistake.” Lampl said.
Correcting it isn’t as simple as it might seem.
“We are in the process of trying figure out how to proactively contact passengers,” Lampl said. Although it’s easy enough to find customers who booked directly with British Airways or through travel agents, he explained, finding those who booked on third-party sites such as Orbitz or Travelocity isn’t so easy because the airline doesn’t have their personal information.
And that’s why, he said, British Airways doesn’t even know how many customers — hundreds or thousands? — snagged the air deal of a lifetime.
Stay tuned.
— Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor
Updated:
British Airways offers $300 to fliers who booked mistaken $40-$100 fares to India
Photo: British Airways jets at London’s Heathrow airport. Credit: Mark Lennihan / Associated Press
.
31 Comments on “British Airways goofs, sells $40 round-trips to India”
Leave a Comment
If you are under 13 years of age you may read this blog, but you may not participate. Here's the full legal spiel.
Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this blog until the author has approved them.
All fields are required
Advertisement
SUBSCRIBE TO THIS BLOG
Click the logo below to subscribe to news from this blog:
Or add this feed to your favorite RSS reader:
more
Or add this feed to your favorite RSS reader:
more
Advertisement
October 7th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
I think they’re stuck. I’m sure they’ve made mistakes in their favor before that the consumer never knew about.
October 7th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Couple of my friends (and their friends) caught the deal, booked, and few got confirmations too.
Some of them even canceled prior bookings for a loss of amount to buy tickets.
Alas, last I heard they are canceling everything.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:09 am
The $40 price tag is misleading. I was one of the people who booked a trip for my family, the price came to around $650 for the roundtrip per person. This is an attractive fare, but definitely not unheard of or screams it’s a price mistake. British Airways has totally mishandled this issue, my confirmed tickets got cancelled 3 days later without any notification or email from Orbitz.com and BA.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:20 am
This does not mention that BA imposes fuel and other surcharges that are far beyond the industry norm. Most passengers had no idea that the “fare” was $40; all of the tickets were sold for $500-600 and more. Many of the bookings were formally ticketed, and a first-year law student could tell you that BA can’t just rescind those tickets.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:23 am
I booked the flight on behalf of my dad. What they’re leaving out is that taxes and fees amount to $530+. So sure it is a good deal, but not a give-away by any means. In our example, we still paid about $700 (as a reference, our last trip from the same city cost between $900-1000/ticket), received confirmation, booking code, ticket number, and now 4 1/2 days after booking travel plans are ruined. As easy as this “mistake” is to fix by mass-canceling, I can only wonder how many “mistakes” in the past worked in their favor, such as charging an extra $200 instead of $20 while increasing fares. We are certainly not fans of BA right now.
October 8th, 2009 at 1:53 am
Gautham:
Your friends who canceled other bookings should let BA know they lost money (cancellation fees + any increase in fares for rebooking) and demand that they either refund them that money or honor their original fares reduced by such cancellation fees for travel on BA.
The article does not mention, but if they were charged $40 + normal “fees and taxes” etc. they have a stronger case than if it was just $40 and that didn’t even cover normal fees (landing, security etc.) Those who booked and lost money are entitled to the cost of that. BA made a mistake but it was not unreasonable to rely on it - they may have been having a promotion, etc.
At a minimum they could individually sue BA in small claims court. At a maximum, a class action suit could and should be filed.
October 8th, 2009 at 2:52 am
British Airways is a major corporation. They made a mistake. They can’t claim that it is going to cause them to lose money, they need to eat the cost and honor the tickets.
They are going to lose more money in bad PR, all the people and operations to try and track down the buyers, the issues of trying to make everyone whole, dealing with the fairness of the situation between everyone involved.
It is a mistake, fire the guy that messed-up, chalk it up to a mistake they will never make again, and move on!
October 8th, 2009 at 3:13 am
Of course, BA just could honor the tickets, but that’s unthinkable these days, isn’t it?
October 8th, 2009 at 4:01 am
All tickets should be honored. If BA cancels, you should due them for full damages. You did nothing wrong. If they don’t check their fares, they are responsible. They need to hire more people to check. They cut corners, and now they should pay the price for that.
October 8th, 2009 at 5:02 am
it would be good PR if they honor the tickets
October 8th, 2009 at 5:12 am
Why does this blog use such a teeny-tiny font? It’s hard to read.
October 8th, 2009 at 11:39 am
I really dont think they did a honest mistake. I saw the price and called BA agent to confirm if it is ‘mistake’ or ’special’. I was told it is a special price and he adviced to book soon as prices will be raised soon.
I bought my tickets and planned family gathering that required few other family memebers purchasing their tickets. Now I have to travel albeit at higher price with different airline.
Worst thing is they did not even call/emailed me about cancellation though I booked from ba.com and provided cell phone number etc.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
I bought 4 tickets once I got word of this deal. And it wasn’t a flat fare of $40, it was a total of $564 per ticket. And in times where all sorts of different retailers/businesses are giving extreme discounts to lure consumers, this did not seem farfetched at all.
I purchased the tickets on friday, received confirmation numbers, and did not find out til MONDAY through email that my tickets had been cancelled (no reason given) But by this time travel/vacation arrangements in India had been already made.. and now what??
After being on the phone with priceline (whom I bought the tickets through) for an hour (!) I was told by them that I would be contacted by BA ( still haven’t heard anything and that was Monday) And when you contact the fine folks at BA, they tell you to EMAIL them any problems you are having. This is almost laughable. So here I am on LA Times trying to figure out what to do as my (ex) departure date is approaching ????
October 8th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
On the same day ,I found a ticket for $1050(round trip). However I found this one (i.e $650) relatively cheaper and booked with orbitz.com .I got a confirmation,my credit card has been charged .after 6 days they sent an email saying that my ticket has been cancelled . Now I lost both the deals and can’t find a ticket for less than $1700 . They say that my refund will be processed in 14 days . I need an immediate refund , because the credit card which I used to make payment has a due date of 9th Oct .
October 8th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I booked this flight and did think it was too good to be true. But went ahead anyway as thought this was a short term deal. Besides, the final price was $680 which is believable, at least in a slow travel period. The BA ppl returned my call today and wont budge at all. Before I bought the BA, NWA was selling the tkt for $1180, and that is now $1900. So not only am I ticketless, I don’t think I can afford a trip at those dates anymore, which were my only option!!
October 8th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
It is hard to believe that BA does not do any software testing testing after a change in their pricing to see if it will reflect the required result.It is hard to believe a company as large as this would make an error like that.
October 8th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
I’m in the same boat as DP and equally frustrated by BA’s silence directly to ticketed passengers. I keep hearing filtered rumors of what they may do or might have said, but how about directly communicating with us? I’m a BAEC member, so it’s not like they don’t have my contact information …
By the way, I would love to hear from affected passengers on the website I just created, http://www.britishairwayshonormyfare.info! Maybe we can amass enough support to get them to reconsider.
October 8th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
BA needs to honor these tickets. I too booked my roundtrip ticket during this time slot. At first even i was a bit baffled that my total RT from New York to Delhi was only $580 (with all taxes etc). But after checking 3-4 times i bought the ticket on cheapOair. I was excited so i even blogged and told my friends.
$580 is definitely a deal but its not $40 as BA is saying. They have not contacted me and i would have not even come to know about it if i hadnt come to know through a friend.
I see that the return flight airline company , Jet Airways has already charged my card. If BA doesnt hone this ticket, i am not sure jet will refund the money. And since only 6 days remain for me to travel, i may end up having to pay more for last minute booking.
I am definitely up to join other folks in demanding BA apologies and refunds and also gives some compensation.
Given that this happened on Oct 2 (Gandhi’s Birthday) it only makes one wonder if some employee wanted to play a bad joke with indian folks!
October 8th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
i bought tickets for 627 dollars i was informed on Wednesday by orbitz that my ticket was cancelled don’t those BA_____S has minimum common sense to Apologize for the inconvenience which they cause….now flight deals are like almost 1600+ so they ruined all my Christmas plans at India…I don’t know what they are going to do…but they should honor the tickets rather than unilaterally saying that they have right to cancel…Obviously they lost all those customers who got cancellations even after confirmed flight tickets
October 9th, 2009 at 12:12 am
Why are they mentioning in every article as 40 dollars only….its actually above 600 dollars which was not a reasonable price from their side but it was not an unbelievable deal from Customer side
October 9th, 2009 at 11:00 am
I bought the tickets on Orbitz.com and I am holding them responsible for the same as I completed transaction with Orbitz.com and not directly booked the fare on BA.com. I even took the Trip Insurance as I am traveling with a Kid.
I have been going back and forth with them to honor the reservation or pay the difference between current fare and my new (would be) reservation fare.
How many times did the Airline companies, responded with good will gesture when the traveler’s made mistake either by picking the wrong date, spelling the wrong name or other wise. Did not they squeeze your pocket in the name of Charges.
Other option that I am looking at is to file a petition in small claims court on the same.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Everyone affected should contact the Attorney General in the state that they are residing and also contact and complain with http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/ of the practices by British Airways. All local newspaper and TV outlets should be contacted to report this story.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I am in the same situation as many others. First of all, BA is trying to cover up their mistake by putting the onus on customers. While customers have a good idea of what is reasonable pricing we don’t know how airlines pricing works (heck they don’t even know how their pricing works). So, how am I suppose to know if $600 is a mistake or a good deal. Secondly, if they did make a mistake they need to honor the ticket. I looked at the Terms & Conditions and it does not look like they have the right to cancel my tickets.
I have formally filed a complaint with US Department of Transportation. If you are in the same situation please use the link below to file your complaint (don’t forget to attach your confirmation email).
http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/escomplaint/es.cfm
We need to stand up to BA on this!!! Would BA have refunded our money if they increased the fare by mistake?
October 9th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
All folks out here who are affected by this, lets create a forum and plan to take legal action against this. Some of us might not even be able to travel on the same dates becuase the fares are too high now. BA cant get away with this just by refunding the fares. They have to honor the confirmed tickets on matter what. The fault is purely their own.Why should the customer suffer because of it?
Lets sincerely plan to do something against this. Can we start pulling our sleeves people, no matter how long it takes to get our rightful justice?
October 9th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Thanks everyone for your comments and info.Yes, you’re right: the fares may have been as low as $40, but with taxes and fees, they can be over $500.
Meanwhile, British Airways now says they’ll give $300 in credit toward a future flight to people who booked the low fares. Here’s the update:
http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/british-airways-offe-5601/
Jane Engle,assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor
October 9th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
My husband and I were planning an Indian wedding in Mumbai, so booked our tickets with another airline on the 2nd Oct for 850 dollars per head. After we found out cheaper tickets on BA we booked tickets for 650 USD via Orbitz and cancelled our other ticket. We got a confirmation and my credit card was charged. It has been charged twice once by BA and once by Orbitz. Yesterday after 8 days of booking our ticket we were emailed by Orbitz that the ticket is cancelled. In these eight days we got our entire wedding reservations done in India for us and our families. Today I have difficulty booking my tickets for India firstly because the price for the same ticket is 2000 USD, and secondly since my credit card has been charged twice if I book another ticket it would exceed my credit limit. Orbitz has refunded the money however when I called BA they say it would take 7 business days to refund the money according to their policy. On explaining my current situation they say wait for 7 days for the money to be refunded and then book another ticket. That would mean further hike in the price and further expense to my pocket without any fault of mine.
Not only has BA been unethical but they also are being indifferent to the damage they have caused to the customer.
October 10th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
I bought this ticket for a total of $568.96 and was extremely happy about this great deal but certainly didn’t think to be an error or scam since I purchase it from BA website and received a confirmation with the itinerary in my email. Now I MUST get to India somehow since I have a friend from another part of the world meeting me there. BA website offers $300.00 off but the ticket still comes to $1300 or so. Considering this absurd error from their part, this price is very unfair since it is still well above many other tickets out there. Does anyone know enough about this matter to give me some advice on what to do now?
October 10th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
BA should not be allowed to just fughgeddabout their boneheaded systems mistake. They need to give the people what was advertised and what the customers paid for. Take it out of the presiding managers’ and executives’ salaries and pensions.
October 11th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Guys,
How long could we wait before booking again with a different flight. Prices aint gonna be going down.
If we need to file a case,I guess we need to do that now. Does that make sense? Does anyone know of an attorney for this case?
October 12th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
I am one of the victims of the BA’s mistake. Please log the complaint at following website. Thats the official way to register the grievance
http://airconsumer.dot.gov/escomplaint/es.cfm
October 16th, 2009 at 7:07 am
The same thing happened to my husband. Make sure if you used a credit card that you check to see that the money has been returned. We had to call the credit card company to put a stop on the payment because they were keeping the money so they could get the interest before they refunded to you.