Received this today and thought it may be of interest to some. Note times are Australian Eastern Standard Times (and currency is Australian Dollar).

FLY VIRGIN BLUE FOR A COIN!
INTERNET BIRTHDAY BONANZA - 1000 FLIGHTS FOR *$1

Virgin Blue is turning 1 this month!! Because you’ve registered on the Virgin Blue website, we’d like to invite you to join in the celebrations. From midnight Friday eve (12:01 a.m. Saturday morning actually), 1000 seats for travel on Tuesday, August 28 will be up for grabs on the internet for just $1.

This is our way of saying thanks for your support over the past 12 months, as we’ve launched and built a solid foundation in the Australian market.

The once-in-a-lifetime offer will be available from midnight Friday August 3 until 3am Saturday August 4, or until sold out and will be for travel on August 28.

As always, but particularly with this offer, we advise you to be quick! Leave the pub early as we expect that the 1000 seats will be snapped up within minutes of the offer going live at midnight.

REMEMBER, THIS OFFER IS CAN BE BOOKED ON THE NET ONLY, AT FRIDAY MIDNIGHT ONLY, AND IS ONLY FOR TRAVEL ON TUESDAY, AUGUST 28!!

This special $1 offer can be booked online only at www.virginblue.com.au. (http://www.virginblue.com.au.) Get online Friday at midnight and join in the celebration.

Best Regards,

The Virgin Blue Team

* Limited seats available. Fair Fare terms apply to these bookings and in line with all Virgin Blue fares, changes are allowed but the available fare on the day will apply. Regardless of whether travellers pay $1.00 or $100 for a flight, Virgin Blue offers all guests the freedom to alter their travel plans. Virgin Blue does not invoke "use-it-or-lose-it".

Cool! This is a great deal. I'll be waiting at my terminal tomorrow night at 12. I wonder if I'll get lucky or not. Will let ya know...

Well, I've been trying to get onto VirginBlue website for the past hour and half but unsuccessfully. Will let you know what the outcome will be by 3am AEST.

Never got even as far as making the booking. Most of the time their site was down or unavailable. At least they could have prepared better for their special sale.

Here's their official excuse:

Virgin Blue would like to thank everyone who tried to book one of our $1 birthday specials. The 1000 seats we sold for a
total of $1000 would have been worth well over $100,000 if it had been any other day aside from our first birthday. Still we are aware that at least 30,000 (or more - we are
still counting) very enthusiastic and persistent people tried to book and were unsuccessful. As you may know, Virgin Blue is one of Australia's leading e-sellers due to the great everyday value we offer travellers on our website www.virginblue.com.au (http://www.virginblue.com.au) . We actually get
thousands of bookings on our website daily. Despite that, just after midnight Friday eve, we experienced 22 times our highest volume previously recorded. While our
systems did get a bit backed up during the night, our IT team worked hard to insure that we kept our promise to sell the 1000
$1 seats that was our first birthday gift to you, our supporters, and we thank the IT team for their hard work and you for your patience and understanding.

We want to apologise to all of you who did not get through as well as congratulate those who did. Virgin Blue will continue to offer great value in the air as we expand across Australia and if you want to keep up
on the newest destinations and the latest Virgin news, make sure to register on the Virgin Blue V-Mailing list on our website to insure that you are the first to hear about new routes, sales and special offers like
this one.

Once again thank you to all of our supporters throughout Australia who are
helping us in keeping the airlines honest and insuring competition for many birthdays to come. Its all part of our goal of "Keeping The Air Fair."

With Best Regards,

The Virgin Blue Team