Cathay Pacific sells first-class tickets at economy prices - again

Second pricing blunder this month for airline as it grapples with a turnaround to reverse losses

Attendants chat at the First Class counter of Cathay Pacific Airways at Hong Kong Airport. The airline said it would again honour its mis-priced tickets. Reuters

Once again, customers of Cathay Pacific landed first-class seats at bargain basement prices, in the second fare blunder by the Hong Kong airline this month.

Tickets for a Hong Kong to Lisbon return journey were sold on the airline's website on Sunday for $1,512 (Dh5,552), instead of $16,000 usually charged for a similar journey.

The carrier said it would honour the tickets as it investigates the cause of the error, in response to questions from The National.

“We are aware of an error on some fares from Europe on our website because of an input issue," a Cathay Pacific spokesperson said. "We are looking into the root cause of this incident both internally and externally with our vendors. For the very small number of customers who have purchased these tickets, we look forward to welcoming you on board to enjoy our premium services.”

The airline made the same error two weeks ago.

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The pricing mistakes come amid other woes, as Cathay grapples with a turnaround to reverse losses amid fierce competition from Asian budget airlines.

This gaffe also comes after the airline's computer system was hacked last year, exposing the personal data of more than 9 million customers in what was the industry's biggest airline data breach.

Pricing mistakes sometimes happen at airlines due to human or technical issues in computer systems or from currency conversion errors.