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A currency error meant that All Nippon Airways underpriced some first and business class flights.
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One passenger told Bloomberg that he bought 25 tickets, including one that was nearly 95% off.
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He also got tickets for family and friends: “I didn’t even bother to ask them if they could make it.”
A man bought airline tickets worth $250,000 for just $17,000 after Japanese airline All Nippon Airways made a currency conversion mistake, Bloomberg reported.
Herman Yip, who runs a travel website and lives in Hong Kong, told Bloomberg that he had bought 25 heavily discounted tickets.
Yip said he bought tickets for family and friends as well as himself. “I didn’t even bother to ask if they could come or not because I had to book very quickly,” he told Bloomberg.
Bloomberg reported that the flights he purchased included a first-class round-trip flight from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Aruba via Tokyo and New York, costing just $890 — or a discount of nearly 95%. After his order was confirmed, Yip was also able to change his flights for free, so he rebooked the first leg of the trip in Bangkok, he said.
Johnny Wong, who works in the airline industry, told Bloomberg that he booked a round-trip business class flight from Jakarta to Honolulu via Tokyo for 13 million dong, or about $550, after noticing the same mistake.
“I never thought I’d get a deal like this,” Wong said, adding that he rushed to buy his tickets before the airline noticed the mistake.
Bloomberg reported that most of the mispriced tickets were for trips that started with a flight from Jakarta to Japan and then to New York.
Another person bought a ticket for business class flights from Jakarta to New York, with stops in Singapore and Tokyo on the way there and Tokyo on the way back, for just $300, down from an average price of $10,000, Bloomberg reported. The journey consists of five flights in total.
All Nippon Airways previously said the tickets were falsely sold cheaply when an incorrect currency conversion was displayed on its Vietnamese website, China’s Central News Agency reported.
In situations like this, Yip said acting quickly and being flexible is important because many people are likely to want to buy tickets.
“If you see something that’s probably a tenth of the original price, just book it,” he told Bloomberg. “It’s very likely you can change or cancel because the airline always wants you to cancel.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
