A Qantas passenger who thought hed scored a bargain on first-class seats for his familys overseas trip soon found out it was too good to be true and he was stuck in an administrative nightmare.
Brisbane resident Aji Paul and his family booked their holiday to the USA only to later discover Qantas had accidentally slashed its first-class fares by up to 85 per cent on the morning of August 23.
The mistake by the airline saw hundreds of first class seats sold, with the Paul family paying about about $17,500 for their tickets, news.com.au reported.
Qantas was able to cancel or refund the first class seats under its terms and conditions covering it for an error or mistake when they realised what had occurred on the website.
But the national carrier instead offered to rebook passengers into business class seats as a gesture of goodwill - for no extra cost.
Lucky passengers still received an amazing deal - the business class seats worked out to be a whopping 65 per cent cheaper than the usual cost of a seat in business.
When Mr Paul had booked his tickets to Dallas, Texas for his familys 2025 holiday, he elected to use the airlines Book Now, Pay Later option - and only paid $100 to secure his tickets.
All customers, regardless of payment method, received an email from Qantas informing passengers of the change and saying they did not have to do anything - their tickets would be automatically changed for them.
Aji Paul, who booked four first class tickets to Dallas for his family next year, was shocked when the sale price of about $17,500 suddenly increased to $100,121 (pictured Mr Pauls payment reminder)
An error on the Qantas website in August saw all of its first-class flights discounted by up to 85 per cent (pictured, Qantas first class)
As a gesture of goodwill, Qantas will be rebooking you in the business class cabin on the same flight for the same price you have already paid, Qantas Customer Care said.
But four days later, Mr Paul noticed the price of the familys airfares had gone from $17,465 to a whopping $100,121.
The father said although he found the amount really shocking, he thought it must have been another price mistake.
Mr Paul called Qantas as soon as he saw the new amount, but it was the start of a frustrating week with the father making multiple calls and speaking to multiple customer service employees.
It’s really terrible because unfortunately every person I speak to gives a totally different story, he said.
They have no consistency in what [information] they are giving.
The father said that adding to his frustration was the fact some representatives promised him the issue would be fixed, but others where confused and couldnt help him.
When Qantas realised the error on its website, it made a gesture of goodwill and gave customers who had purchased the discounted tickets seats in business class for no extra cost (pictured, stock photo of a Qantas plane)
After being told to lodge a complaint, another Qantas employee called him and asked the father if he wanted to pay $56,000 for the business class tickets.
The father was unable to get any resolution for two weeks, but Qantas has now promised to give the family business class seats at the original booked price of $4,366.14 per ticket.
We apologise to Mr Paul for the trouble and are contacting him to resolve the outstanding issues with his booking, a Qantas spokesman said.
It is understood Qantas does not know about any other processing mistakes and all tickets have been updated with their new business class seats - including customers who chose to pay by Book Now, Pay Later.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Qantas for comment.