Cathay Pacific sells first-class tickets from Portugal to Hong Kong at one-tenth of original price

Carrier promptly admits to mistake selling tickets for only US$1,512, when full fares on similar routes cost US$16,000. It says it will honour discounts

Incident comes less than two weeks after a similar case thought to have cost the company millions of dollars

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Cathay Pacific commits another ticketing error less than two weeks after a previous incident. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:00pm, 13 Jan 2019Updated: 11:14pm, 13 Jan 2019

First-class tickets on Cathay Pacific Airways from Portugal to Hong Kong were sold for US$1,512 (HK$11,800) instead of US$16,000 on Sunday, less than two weeks after a similar incident on the carrier’s website sparked a frenzy among eagle-eyed buyers.

The airline offered one-way flights on partner carriers from Lisbon to London, Zurich or Frankfurt, with connecting Cathay Pacific flights from these stops to Hong Kong. It does not operate direct routes between Portugal and Hong Kong.

But, while some of the tickets were at the usual full fares, others were sold at huge discounts.

For example, an early morning flight from Lisbon to Frankfurt, followed by a flight at midday in first class on Cathay to Hong Kong, cost US$16,000, but a midday flight from Lisbon to London, followed by a late afternoon Cathay flight in first class, cost just US$1,512.

As of 11.30am on Sunday, the steeply discounted tickets remained on sale.

A screen grab of the erroneous fares. Photo: SCMP

In a statement issued later, a Cathay spokeswoman said: “We are aware of an error on some fares from Europe on our website because of an input issue. The sale of such fares was stopped immediately.