Ryanair / Aer Lingus spat over €5 flights
18.04.08
Aer Lingus has agreed to honour £4 (€5) flights to the US that it mistakenly sold to about 100 customers on its website on Wednesday. The company had refused to accept the bookings on business class flights, normally valued at €1,775 (£1,433) each way, however today the airline said they would give customers who booked the seats the chance of flying economy class at the price advertised.
Aer Lingus said the problem was linked to a special offer where customers who bought a premier class seat were to be given a second for free. An airline spokesman said: ‘The problem was the free seats actually leaked on to the website.' It initially refused to honour the flights in any way, saying that the passengers 'should have known it was a mistake when they made the bookings.'
However, the Consumers' Association of Ireland had insisted binding contracts were made and that customers were due compensation. It said today that the offer of economy flights is 'very reasonable'.
Ryanair, the largest shareholder of Aer Lingus, used the problem as an opportunity to put the boot into Irish rival, with whom it has a long running public dispute. It launched its own rival promotion, promising 10,000 €5 seats (including taxes), adding: ‘and unlike Aer Lingus’ phantom €5 seats, Ryanair will honour them. On aerlingus.com a low fare is a ‘mistake’, on www.ryanair.com, it is guaranteed.'
In addition to the bad press, the 90 minute glitch on the booking website is estimated to have cost the airline about £790,000.
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