AB/Etihad - Bought Business Class, getting Economy instead...
 

Hi everybody,

Few days ago I bought a business class return trip from DUS to BKK with Air Berlin / Etihad.

I have to say the fares in the www.airberlin.com website were quite affordable and, for once in my life, I swapped travelling in the middle seat of Row 41 for the wide-seat + pajamas option.

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But today I got this mail from the Air Berlin Customer Service:

Due to a technical error, the price you paid for your journey was displayed incorrectly in our systems and is not a valid price for this itinerary in the Business Class compartment.

We apologize for the inconvenience and in order to honor your travel request, we offer you either

(i) to fly Economy Class at the same fare; or
(ii) to refund your ticket.

We have already rebooked your itinerary to Economy Class and sent your revised booking separately. If you prefer instead to select to have your ticket refunded, please contact us at...

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Do they have any right to do this?

I´ve been checking their General Terms and Conditions of Carriage (GTACC) (aka. the contract with rights and responsibilities both parts have agreed when booking and paying) and there´s no way they can plea "price displayed incorrectly" for downgrading us back to Row 41.

Air Berlin´s GTACC: https://www.airberlin.com/site/affil...agb/ABB_en.pdf

4. Prices / Payment
4.1 Fares
4.1.1 The services and prices in the booking confirmation apply.


Thanks for your help!

As this is not a trip report I shall move it over to the airberlin forum.

Moomba
Moderator: Trip Reports

How much was this alleged 'mistake fare'?

Given that you previously showed an aversion to business-class fares, the fact that this price was sufficient for you to break the habit of a lifetime would seem to indicate that it was a price much closer to an economy-level ticket.

You are being offered a full refund. If it is cheaper for you to buy an economy ticket now, then you should take the refund, and then spend less on your new ticket.

There really is nothing more you can do here.

And please don't open new threads when there is an existing thread!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/premi...-euros-rt.html

Your other post states you purchased PMI-BKK.

It seems quite unlikely you were looking for a regular economy fare and happened to find this 'error' fare without knowing it was incorrect, sign up to FT and find the respective thread for that 'error' fare to post in.

I think you knew the price was likely a mistake, and actively looked for it after seeing it on FT (or a blog that reposted it). Sometimes they're not cancelled, sometimes they are. You win some you lose some.

There was another thread last year on this very topic.

It would be helpful to get to know the details:

- full itinerary and price
- when booked
- how is the confirmation email worded
- was the fare succesfully charged from your card / account
- how many days between confirmation and note of wrong price
- whats the full text of the note
- would you be willing to sue AB in germany / which country do you live in

It was an error fare that AB offered for a very short period a few days ago from Spain to destinations in South East Asia - business class for less than €500 return. Other destinations in Asia, Africa and Australia were also available at incredibly low prices. The fare was pulled within minutes of the thread being posted to Flyertalk - it may indeed have been pulled BEFORE the thread was posted - this deal originated elsewhere (though FT'ers typically seem to think that FT is where those blogs come to find these deals!). The tickets that were successfully booked under this fare were cancelled about 5 days later [or possibly sooner - some purchasers reported not seeing eticket numbers when looking at their "confirmed" itineraries on the AB website]. Full discussion in the thread linked above.

It was not just an error fare, it was a *very obvious* error fare. I believe the courts have given merchants some protection with regard to 'glitch' prices. Personally, I'd just take the refund and move on.