Japanese airline cancels first class tickets mistakenly sold for P50,000 from P918,000

The Japanese airline that mistakenly sold first-class flights worth $16,300 (P918,000) for only $890 (P50,000) has cancelled the flight tickets to avoid financial losses.

To recall, All Nippon Airways (ANA) sold the first-class tickets at a significantly lower price due to a conversion error that caused the incorrect rates.

While the spokesperson for the airline earlier promised its passengers that they will honor the tickets already purchased, they later clarified that they would still be making a final decision by the end of April.

They decided to simply wipe the slate clean and cancel the tickets to avoid losing profit, resulting in the disappointment of the passengers who thought they had managed to snag the premium flights for cheap.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the airline will refund the money to all the passengers who bought the tickets.

“For the flights which were erroneously processed, ANA will cancel and fully refund all itineraries. ANA will notify each customer affected by the error. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, and appreciate your cooperation in communicating with us," the airline company said in a statement.

They explained that the currency conversion error was caused by a technical issue in a fare-quote system provided by Amadeus IT Group SA, a major global travel technology company.

The technical issue "temporarily led, in some instances, to incorrect pricing being displayed for specific cabin classes for ANA," according to a spokesperson from Amadeus.

Back in 2019, another airline, Cathay Pacific Airways, also made the mistake of selling first and business-class tickets from Vietnam to the United States at a lower rate, pricing them at $675 (P38,000) instead of the usual $16,000 (P890,000). They honored the fares, according to Bloomberg.