By
Michael Clarke
THAI
Airways is refusing to honour bookings made on its website after £9 million
worth of flights were given away for free following a pricing blunder.
Over
1,500 fares were booked after flights between Heathrow and Bangkok were offered
for free on its website for a 24-hour period.
The
majority of bookings were for the first class cabin, where return fares come in
around £6,000.
The
carrier sent confirmation emails to customers, who only paid around £100 tax,
but withdrew the sales after realising its mistake.
An
email sent to customers read: “On April 23 2003, the prices shown on Thai
Airways International’s website for flights on the London to Bangkok route
contained an error.”
It
added: “Although you have sought to make a booking, I regret to inform you
that the nature of this unfortunate but obvious mistake was such that Thai
Airways International is unable to issue you with tickets.”
A
Thai Airways spokeswoman said: “We can’t possibly honour these bookings
because it was a genuine mistake. We realise some airlines have been offering
free fares but these are marketed as such, while this was obviously a
mistake.”