Five days ago I wrote about an incredible business class fare that Air New Zealand published for travel between Chicago and Australia. You could book a roundtrip business class ticket for under $1,500, which is a spectacular value.
It was also possible to fly United on this fare, though given the choice between Air New Zealand and United, I’d choose Air New Zealand.
As many of you are probably aware, this was the second mistake fare in a very short period. Just days prior Cathay Pacific published insanely low first and business class fares for travel from Vietnam to North America. I was impressed that they not only honored the fare, but acted swiftly and publicly acknowledged this.
Happy 2019 all, and to those who bought our good – VERY good surprise ‘special’ on New Year’s Day, yes – we made a mistake but we look forward to welcoming you on board with your ticket issued. Hope this will make your 2019 ‘special’ too!
.#promisemadepromisekept #lessonlearnt— Cathay Pacific (@cathaypacific) January 2, 2019
Air New Zealand has been a different story. The airline hasn’t publicly confirmed whether or not they’d honor the fare. Some have mentioned that they DMed with Air New Zealand on Twitter and were told it would be honored, but generally speaking I wouldn’t take what a frontline airline representative says as fact.
So given that it has been several days I decided to reach out to media contacts at Air New Zealand. Air New Zealand has confirmed that they’ll be honoring their recent business class fares from Chicago to Australia. Per their statement:
If the booking has been paid for, confirmed and ticketed, the fare will be honoured. Any bookings that weren’t fully completed (i.e. delayed payment/not ticketed) will not be able to take advantage of this fare.
This is what many people already suspected, though it’s nice for it to be official as well.
While I certainly hoped that they’d honor, Air New Zealand has historically been notorious for not honoring mistake fares, so I was very happy to see that.
So not only did we see two incredibly low fares in a short period, but both were honored. This year sure is off to a good start. 😉
Not sure to the cancelled flight comment
Just came back from sydney to los angeles on March 3rd (today) on united metal UA842, not sure what dates have been cancelled
Heads up to people who got in on this deal. United has cancelled the Friday LAX SYD and the Sunday SYD LAX starting in March. Call your agent to get flights rescheduled. I was able to do it with Expedia but it took me two hours.
Hi ben
When you first published the fair I asked you how to do it on United and you never responded. I tried on my own it didn't work.please simplify your explanation so it will be easier to book next time cuz I really wanted to go thanks
Agree with dc_nomad. Could you create a post on where we should credit the miles?
Any suggestion of where should I credit the miles (United, Virgin Atlantic...)?
Really?! They couldn't even honor the refund their agent told me they will issue when their website was automatically determining passenger flight schedule. It was adjusting the date and the year by itself. They fixed that because of my complaint, but no "thanks for bringing this to our attention" or here's the refund we promised we'll give. Maybe because they don't get publicity on those kind of mistakes. I hate air New Zealand
This is great, but just so you know, Malaysian Airlines are cancelling the Emirates FIrst Class fares so it’s not all amazing news.
I always want to come to New Zealand !
Didn’t jump on the ANZ deal since they didn’t honor one from Sept 2017 and had chosen to cancel my flight over a week after the original mistake but good for them honoring it this time.
This is great, but just so you know, Malaysian Airlines are cancelling the Emirates FIrst Class fares so it's not all amazing news.
One factor they likely take into account is how many people have actually bought these fares. A relatively small number then it’s easy to honour them because it makes you look good.
If it’s a lot and it’s costing you shed loads of money then a burst of negative comments on a few blogs not many of the general travelling public know or care about because you didn’t honour them isn’t going to worry you.
Given the choice between those cramped-looking seats on NZ's 789 vs. UA's Polaris seat on 77W...it's not even close - maybe NZ has better food (have not flown them in J so would not know), but that seat is definitely not better. Pretty flippant to say you would rather fly NZ, but to each their own...
What stage of the mistake fare process is the one where you despise the company for honouring this fare but not the one you booked in 2017?
That's great news indeed, officially. I suspect it's primarily the relationship with OTAs that they don't want to screw; secondly, ORD is a new destination and they might be better off selling 'almost mistake fares' than regular J fares with lower loading factors.
Wow; I didn’t bother due to precedent but looks like maybe that’s not the norm anymore.
Would still rather not book through an OTA tho
Was lucky to get in on this after seeing the post and have two confirmed tickets for late Oct to Melbourne. Thanks Ben!
A lot of error fares lately that airlines are allowing Cathay New, Zealand, and Air Serbia (kind of) honoring their error fares... Air serbia made me change my dates due to over booking but they still honored the price