Aer Lingus ticketing error.

[Tizona]

Aer Lingus screwed up yesterday and sold tickets to the US for 5 euro each by mistake. Apparently 300 people booked at these prices. http://www.rte.ie/business/2008/0417/aerlingus.html

I've just been listening to all these 'disgruntled' chancers on the Joe Duffy Show, complaining that Aer Lingus says it won't honour the tickets, and whinging about their 'contract'.

We commonly hear the same whingers (many on this website) telling the Aer Lingus staff to 'get real' if they complain about Aer Lingus breaking their contracts of employment. There is no sympathy then, but rather a good telling off and a reminder that 'Aer Lingus is a business', and has to 'make a profit' - etc etc etc.

I suggest that whats good for the goose is good for the gander. If you think a contract means nothing at Aer Lingus, whether with a passenger or with the staff, then suck it up if you get stung.
Its a business.
It has to make a profit.
Get Real.
Tough sh1t.

(Puts on tin hat, retires to bunker)

[krayZpaving]

Hugely stupid from a PR point of view. They should have admitted the mistake and said "while we don't have to, in the interest of good relations, we're honouring the tickets."

Cost: €100,000 (including lost markup - actual cost much less)
Benefit: great PR, one up on Ryanair.

[seabhcan]

I'm amazed at how bad the Aer Lingus PR is. Ryanair would have spun on a dime and turned the f-up to their advantage.

Aer Lingus should have honoured the tickets and written it off as a marketing expense - gone on every radio station and said - "keep an eye on the Aerlingus.com website - this is a taster of things to come!"

easily worth €5m in publicity.

[MookieBaylock]

I would have to agree with Seabhcan on this one, although the real figure was closer to 500k

[drbob1972]

I'm amazed at how bad the Aer Lingus PR is. Ryanair would have spun on a dime and turned the f-up to their advantage.

i tend to agree, whilst it was a feck up and these things do happen they should be smart enough to realise same and make the best of a bad situation, perhaps if they want to offset some of the costs they can fire there PR firm / people whom seem incapable of spotting the bleeding oblivious....

[PaintingMedium]

I do not really understand how Aer Lingus can get away with it though. I know well that goods and services can be mispriced, and that it is all invitation to treat. The difference here is, that the customer brought the "good" up to the virtual "till" and a contract was made, and the money exchanged hands. Once the money has passed hands, the contract is done and finalised.

If this was a shop, and it happened in person , they would not have a leg to stand on, might be a mistake but it is legal. A manager cannot come running out of the shop to the people and demand the items back, it does not work like that. If Aer Lingus are too incompetent or too greedy to hire someone to scan through all the approaching sales and check to see if any mistakes occured, then it is their problem not the customer.

If companies are using more technology and less people in order to save on expenses, then they will have to accept the risk that accompanies that be it mistakes in pricing or any other bugs, they cannot have it both ways!

[drbob1972]

I do not really understand how Aer Lingus can get away with it though. I know well that goods and services can be mispriced, and that it is all invitation to treat. The difference here is, that the customer brought the "good" up to the virtual "till" and a contract was made, and the money exchanged hands. Once the money has passed hands, the contract is done and finalised.

the head of the consumer rights body was on the last word on TodayFM this evening saying that the customer had some legal rights and they had been in contact (or trying to be) with Aer Lingus today and if they had not gotten some satistaction tomorrow afternoon they would be issuing a press release advising the effected consumers of their legal entitlements under the contract of services, whilst she didn't say that the customers would be in the right, she did strongly hint they had a case, add that to the fact that Aer Lingus set some level of presidence when then honoured a similar fubar in 2003 i'm thinking that unless they have a bit of common sense they could end up with a slew of court cases against them, if thats the case i refer to my previous posting about firing their PR firm / people cos it really is a massive OG that they could so easily have avoided

[Maximilian]

This is not the first time that this has happened. I bought a £10 (if memory serves) first class ticket to Thailand from Thai Airways. In fact, my entire class in college bought the tickets. It was during the SARS outbreak and we all assumed that the cheap tickets were a SARS special or part of a SARS seat sale to encourage people to keep visiting Thailand. Anyway, our tickets were not honoured.

Regarding the question of whether it is a valid contract, might any delay in a credit card transaction mean there was no exchange of consideration i.e. money might not be transferred from a credit card account immediately, perhaps not until the end of business that day, therefore if Aerlingus were quick enough in canceling the transaction no money may have changed hands. Thus no contract.

[Tizona]

I'm amazed at how bad the Aer Lingus PR is. Ryanair would have spun on a dime and turned the f-up to their advantage.

Or alternatively Micko might've just said 'Fark Off!"
As is his wont.

[fergalr]

I'm amazed at how bad the Aer Lingus PR is.

Just think of them as "Aircom" and the ineptitude becomes clear. And, yeah, it's a grey area as to whether these tickets can be honoured as far as I'd imagine. If I were Aer Lingus I'd admit the own goal, blush and try and spin it.