With airfare prices rising fast, many are looking for ways to bring down the cost of travel in whatever way they can — some spend hours scouring aggregators to find that low price while a number of airlines have started launching "flight subscriptions" that let one take numerous flights for a set price.
Despite longstanding myths around the last-minute flight deal, scoring cheap airfare often comes down to booking fast and early — that is what happened when 32-year-old Hong Kong resident Herman Yip snapped up $250,000 worth of plane tickets for just $17,000.
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Here's How This Travel Blogger Scored $250,000 Worth Of Air Travel
As first reported by Bloomberg News, Yip was scrolling the website of the Japan-based carrier All Nippon Airways (ALNPF) when he noticed that some fares that were far below what they would sell for normally — a round-trip flight from Jakarta, Indonesia to Aruba in first class for $890 and many business class flights across Asia for $300.
Yip, who runs a Hong Kong travel website, didn't think twice and started buying up any abnormally low fare he saw. He spent $17,000 on 25 tickets for both himself and family and friends that would have cost upwards of $250,00 at their market value.
"I didn't even bother to ask them whether they were able to make it or not, as I needed to book really quickly," Yip told Bloomberg.
Yip said that the low fares stayed up on the ANA website for more than 12 hours but, afterwards, ANA told those who had purchased tickets that the prices were listed incorrectly. The mistake arose for the currency conversion on the Vietnamese version of the website from which Yip and a number of others had accessed ANA.
The airline has not yet told him whether the tickets he purchased would remain valid, Yip said.
"I guess ANA hasn't made clear if they’re going to honor the tickets or not, because the impact from the incident seems so huge as the bug lasted for so long," Yip told Bloomberg. "I know 20 people who knew about the incident, and that of course just multiplies the impact."
Airline Mistakes Offer Hilarity (And Occasional Boons) To Travelers
A similar mistake occurred in 2019 when Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific (CPCAF) accidentally listed first class tickets from Vietnam to several North American cities that would normally set one back several thousand dollars for around $650. The airline ended up publicly poking fun at itself and honoring the issued tickets.
"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," Cathay Pacific later tweeted in what ended up being a very positive PR move.
Still, coding errors and glitches occasionally also go the other way. Earlier this month, Cognizant consulting firm executive Shaun Walker tried to change his American Airlines (AAL) flight from Seattle to Florida to a later time through Expedia (EXPE) and was presented with a change price of $2,147,483,647.
Walker's tweet about a change price that could buy him several private jets or even his own airline went viral but he ended up sticking with his original flight.
