Global Courant 2023-04-20 13:31:34
HONG KONG — A witty opportunist has bagged $250,000 (S$333,000) worth of airline tickets for just $17,000 after fares were quoted ultra cheap on an All Nippon Airways (ANA) website due to a currency conversion error.
Herman Yip, 32, bought 25 tickets for a fraction of the usual price, including a first-class round-trip ticket all the way from Jakarta to Aruba, via Tokyo and New York, for just $890. Some business class flights cost as little as $300, he told Bloomberg News.
ANA said on Wednesday that airfares were incorrectly listed on the Vietnam website due to a currency conversion error. The Japanese airline has not confirmed whether the reduced tickets will remain valid, but says it will make a decision at the end of April on how to deal with the problem.
Mr Yip said the low prices remained on the ANA website for at least 12 hours.
“I think ANA hasn’t made it clear whether they’re going to honor the tickets or not because the impact of the incident seems so huge because the bug has lasted so long,” said Yip, who runs a travel website based out of Hong Kong. “I know 20 people who knew about the incident, and of course that only increases the impact.”
Even though he didn’t have time to consult family and friends, Mr. Yip went ahead and bought them tickets anyway.
“I didn’t even bother to ask if they could come or not because I had to book very quickly,” he said.
Discovering that he could also change his flight for free once the booking was confirmed, Mr Yip rebooked his odyssey between Jakarta and Aruba and started instead in Bangkok, which is closer to his home in Hong Kong than the Indonesian capital.
Cathay Pacific Airways had a similar mishap in 2019, selling seats in premium cabins for hundreds of dollars instead of thousands. The Hong Kong airline honored the tickets.
To take advantage of these rare moments, Mr. Yip recommends responding quickly and being flexible as there may not be a wide choice of dates or destinations.
He said many other people are likely to jump at the chance as well, limiting options, which is why he advised booking first and reviewing later.
“If you see something that’s probably a tenth of the original price, just book it,” he said. “Chances are you can change or cancel because the airline always wants you to cancel.” BLOOMBERG
