Mel-lax oct/nov rt from $444 us qantas

[MEL_Traveller]

If I wake up and find an extra $100M in my account - it's a mistake and the money will leave as fast as it appeared .... can't see the difference with this sort of caper.

The accidental transfer of money into your account is not contractual. The purchase of an airline ticket is. The basic premise is that people should be held to agreements they make.

 

[JohnK]

If I wake up and find an extra $100M in my account - it's a mistake and the money will leave as fast as it appeared .... can't see the difference with this sort of caper.

Be careful about spending that money though. There is jail time involved as some people have recently found out.

 

[smit0847]

This is like the calm before the storm. If the tickets are cancelled I predict it will happen tomorrow afternoon.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

This is like the calm before the storm. If the tickets are cancelled I predict it will happen tomorrow afternoon.

no doubt there are some discussions going on with the legal team, the PR team, perhaps the DOT and the travel agencies. Qf's statements have possibly put a stop to any further consequential claims for things like non refundable hotels and connecting flights.

is it worth cancelling these tickets for the couple of hundred dollars it might cost the airline? I'd like to think not. And the benefits would be a massive boost in the PR stakes.

 

[moa999]

I don't think there is any positive PR... There is just the risk of negative PR and/or DOT issues

 

[quokka77]

13 Stages of a Mistake Fare (reposted from a blog, in turn reposted from Flyertalk)...

13 Stages of a Mistake Fare by Hans Golden - Will Run For Miles

 

[lovetravellingoz]

is it worth cancelling these tickets for the couple of hundred dollars it might cost the airline? I'd like to think not. And the benefits would be a massive boost in the PR stakes.

It will also get down to how many times that couple of hundred dollars is multiplied by the numbers of people that booked. Did a hundred book, or thousands?

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I don't think there is any positive PR... There is just the risk of negative PR and/or DOT issues

Is it really negative PR though?

The main people affected are veteran forumites who will have known it was a mistake fate. They rolled the dice and will be happy if it comes off. Might be miffed if they miss out, but all will know that it was not really a deal they were entitled too. So I cannot really see any real long-term damage.

 

[samh004]

Be careful about spending that money though. There is jail time involved as some people have recently found out.

I recently had a large sum of money in my account for a few days, to make a purchase... despite it only having been there for a very short amount of time, I did get 1¢ interest at the end of the month! Even at the worst interest rates I wouldn't touch $100 million accidentally being in my account for a day, as the interest would more than make up for it

 

[yohy?!]

Is it really negative PR though?

The main people affected are veteran forumites who will have known it was a mistake fate. They rolled the dice and will be happy if it comes off. Might be miffed if they miss out, but all will know that it was not really a deal they were entitled too. So I cannot really see any real long-term damage.

Plus a stack of average joe punters from ozbargain - probably more than from AFF

 

[danny09]

Will be interesting to see the outcome, i Booked MEL-LAX return for 2, opportunity too good to pass up! lets hope it sticks

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Plus a stack of average joe punters from ozbargain - probably more than from AFF

Yes I mean ALL forums. AFF by itself would not likely achieve critical mass in such a short period. Ozbargain would have a much bigger reach.

The thing is the readers of these forums (including myself!!!) are all looking for bargains, and mistakes, to take advantage and will have in the main part a good idea what is a sale or discount vs a stuff-up to try.

 

[dajop]

Yes I mean ALL forums. AFF by itself would not likely achieve critical mass in such a short period. Ozbargain would have a much bigger reach.

.br ever make ozbargain? It was around for months before the loophole was closed, makes me think the numbers on AFF are not significant enough to close these things down. Plus the portuguese language website probably scared people off.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

So basically Qantas is cancelling every ticket issued today? Or....?

Today does highlight the price point which people will book on a whim in addition to the other benefits to QF.

- Increased brand awareness
- People booking tickets that otherwise wouldn't have ever booked (= new revenues)
- QF can now overbook flights more than normal because a likely higher no-show rate (= increased revenue)
- Re-engagement of QFF members (=no amount of eDMs could ever achieve these results)
- "legit" purchases today may have caused the customer to NOT book a competing airline (=hurts the competition at minimal cost)
- Many people trying QF for the first time because the price was right (=cheap customer acquisition)
- Increased web/mobile traffic to Qantas.com (=how many pax went on to book connections, hotels, car hire, insurance, joined QFF....)

Brilliant strategic PR move if this was intentional.

Interestingly if I were Head of Product @ Qantas I would be keeping tabs on all revenue channels on these people and re-visit the situation in 3 months. The metrics that will come from this are likely different to typical customers and there is huge opportunity to exploit this for profit. This would fit in nicely with the business intelligence co QFF just got their fingers into.

Brilliant QF 10/10

 

[lovetravellingoz]

.br ever make ozbargain? It was around for months before the loophole was closed, makes me think the numbers on AFF are not significant enough to close these things down. Plus the portuguese language website probably scared people off.

Yes pretty sure .br did, and may have been there first.

This instance was on a number of forums and social media...

And today there are just so many, many forums as well as social media that any ultra-cheap deal or mistake offereing gets closed down. and not just by the numbers booked, but because company-reps also populate the sites.

It used to be a truism that if you came across a deal, that you could post it, but do not ring up the company to ask if the "deal" is genuine. That is curcumvented now as sites are monitored.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Brilliant strategic PR move if this was intentional.

Qantas glitch causes cheap-as-chips flights from Australia to Los Angeles

 

[whatmeworry]

.br ever make ozbargain? It was around for months before the loophole was closed, makes me think the numbers on AFF are not significant enough to close these things down. Plus the portuguese language website probably scared people off.

At least two years ago. Might have been on flyertalk first, but first mentioned in a Frequent flyer conference.

 

[stoneman]

Well.... yesterday was fun, today is going to be (ahem) interesting fingers crossed!

 

[opusman]

Even at the worst interest rates I wouldn't touch $100 million accidentally being in my account for a day, as the interest would more than make up for it

I think you'd find that when they took the $100 million back they'd also take the interest

 

[SeatBackForward]

No doubt the existence of flight price scanñing tools makes a big difference these days.