FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - [FARE GONE] Wickedly Low Biz Class Fare from YYZ to LCA (Cyprus) on AZ (Alitalia)

brokeboy · Apr 20, 06, 7:46 pm

Here's some more stuff GUWonder. Care to do the honors on page 1

BTW THANKS! for putting your time into page 1 summary. that sucker is huge.
think evan.perez@wsj.com may want a followup article in WSJ?

Alitalia Accidentally Offers
Airfare to Cyprus for $33.

By EVAN PEREZ
April 7, 2006 12:08 a.m.

For a few hours on Wednesday, the hottest ticket in travel was to Larnaca, Cyprus.

Italian carrier Alitalia accidentally was offering a $33 business-class airfare from Toronto via Italy to the picturesque, but perhaps off-the-beaten-path, resort town of 72,000. The regular business fare on that route is $2,588.

The fare was posted in the morning hours Wednesday in Canadian dollars. Apparently a worker forgot to enter in the two zeros, an Alitalia spokeswoman said.

Word of the fare spread quickly via the Internet travel site Flyertalk.com and passed on by travel bloggers, prompting hundreds of travelers to jump on the deal. Then travel Web sites such as Orbitz.com caught on and alerted company officials.

Alitalia said it initially suspended all the bookings while it tried to determine how much damage had been done. A spokeswoman declined to say how many bookings were made.

But Alitalia decided it would honor 509 of the bookings that were purchased and ticketed before it suspended reservations. Those who booked reservations but whose tickets hadn't yet been issued are out of luck. "It was a human mistake," Alitalia's spokeswoman said. "We hope that people will appreciate the effort we are making."

At $2,588, the financially struggling airline would have received about $1.32 million in revenue for the 509 tickets, compared with the $16,797 it would receive at the $33 fare. The airline declined to comment on those figures.

Vinod Ponnusamy, of Seattle, was one of those who quickly booked tickets to Larnaca for him and his girlfriend in September, never mind that he had no clue what they would do there. "It's definitely not a place I had ever considered going," he said. Mr. Ponnusamy is expecting delivery of his tickets today and hasn't received a cancellation notice.

After doing some research and finding out about the 1974 Turkish invasion of part of Cyprus, he noted, "I didn't realize all the Greek-Turkish division going on there. But it should be fun."

Brian Hoyt, a spokesman for Orbitz.com, which operates the Cheaptickets site, said the company was refunding ticketing fees to customers who had booked and whose reservations were canceled.

Such pricing mistakes aren't unheard of, though travel companies respond to the errors in a variety of ways. Last year now-defunct carrier Independence Air sold dozens of tickets accidentally for $0, and Sabre Holdings Corp.'s Travelocity mistakenly sold tickets to Fiji for $51.

Write to Evan Perez at evan.perez@wsj.com

http://blogs.usatoday.com/sky/2006/04/cyprus.html
author: mailto:todayinthesky@usatoday.com

http://www.pulse24.com/Business/Top_...7-001/page.asp

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Nat...23748-sun.html
author: no idea but here's the editor feedback@lfpress.com <feedback@lfpress.com>

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/n...c-e81042bdce86
http://www.cbc.ca/pei/story/pe-cypru...-20060412.html
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNew...523330-cp.html
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main...25314&cat_id=1
http://english.people.com.cn/200604/...09_256979.html

more stories that confirm the tickets. wow. looks like Alitalia's execs have gotten into a PR nightmare or are scrambling for more email filtering.

Apr 20, 06, 7:46 pm	#5013
brokeboy Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 43	Here's some more stuff GUWonder. Care to do the honors on page 1 BTW THANKS! for putting your time into page 1 summary. that sucker is huge. think evan.perez@wsj.com may want a followup article in WSJ? Alitalia Accidentally Offers Airfare to Cyprus for $33. By EVAN PEREZ April 7, 2006 12:08 a.m. For a few hours on Wednesday, the hottest ticket in travel was to Larnaca, Cyprus. Italian carrier Alitalia accidentally was offering a $33 business-class airfare from Toronto via Italy to the picturesque, but perhaps off-the-beaten-path, resort town of 72,000. The regular business fare on that route is $2,588. The fare was posted in the morning hours Wednesday in Canadian dollars. Apparently a worker forgot to enter in the two zeros, an Alitalia spokeswoman said. Word of the fare spread quickly via the Internet travel site Flyertalk.com and passed on by travel bloggers, prompting hundreds of travelers to jump on the deal. Then travel Web sites such as Orbitz.com caught on and alerted company officials. Alitalia said it initially suspended all the bookings while it tried to determine how much damage had been done. A spokeswoman declined to say how many bookings were made. But Alitalia decided it would honor 509 of the bookings that were purchased and ticketed before it suspended reservations. Those who booked reservations but whose tickets hadn't yet been issued are out of luck. "It was a human mistake," Alitalia's spokeswoman said. "We hope that people will appreciate the effort we are making." At $2,588, the financially struggling airline would have received about $1.32 million in revenue for the 509 tickets, compared with the $16,797 it would receive at the $33 fare. The airline declined to comment on those figures. Vinod Ponnusamy, of Seattle, was one of those who quickly booked tickets to Larnaca for him and his girlfriend in September, never mind that he had no clue what they would do there. "It's definitely not a place I had ever considered going," he said. Mr. Ponnusamy is expecting delivery of his tickets today and hasn't received a cancellation notice. After doing some research and finding out about the 1974 Turkish invasion of part of Cyprus, he noted, "I didn't realize all the Greek-Turkish division going on there. But it should be fun." Brian Hoyt, a spokesman for Orbitz.com, which operates the Cheaptickets site, said the company was refunding ticketing fees to customers who had booked and whose reservations were canceled. Such pricing mistakes aren't unheard of, though travel companies respond to the errors in a variety of ways. Last year now-defunct carrier Independence Air sold dozens of tickets accidentally for $0, and Sabre Holdings Corp.'s Travelocity mistakenly sold tickets to Fiji for $51. Write to Evan Perez at evan.perez@wsj.com http://blogs.usatoday.com/sky/2006/04/cyprus.html author: mailto:todayinthesky@usatoday.com http://www.pulse24.com/Business/Top_...7-001/page.asp http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Nat...23748-sun.html author: no idea but here's the editor feedback@lfpress.com <feedback@lfpress.com> http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/n...c-e81042bdce86 http://www.cbc.ca/pei/story/pe-cypru...-20060412.html http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNew...523330-cp.html http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main...25314&cat_id=1 http://english.people.com.cn/200604/...09_256979.html more stories that confirm the tickets. wow. looks like Alitalia's execs have gotten into a PR nightmare or are scrambling for more email filtering. Last edited by brokeboy; Apr 20, 06 at 8:09 pm..