Singapore Airlines are expecting travel agents who sold business class fares at economy prices due to loading glitch to notify customers to divvy up the difference, refund tickets or face travel disruptions.
The airline told Travel Today they were “working with travel agent partners” to contact customers “so that steps can be made to ensure there is no disruption to their travel plans”.
The issue came about after SIA re-assigned a booking sub-class originally designated to Economy Class bookings to be used for Business Class bookings from 8 December, but a number of travel agents sold tickets against the re-assigned sub-class at an economy class fare level.
“The airfare conditions for this fare clearly stated that it was only valid for Economy Class travel,” SIA told Travel Today.
“Once we were notified of this issue we advised travel agents of various options available to customers, including paying the difference to our lowest Business Class fare, travelling in Economy Class on the booked ticket, refunding the difference between the fare charged and our lead in Economy Class fares or offering a full refund.”
News reports circulating speculate the “cheap” flights were between Singapore and European destinations, which in some cases the cost difference was as much as $5000.
A Flight Centre spokesman told News.com.au that the agency became aware of the issue last Saturday and notified the airline – but the problem was not rectified until Monday.
“The fare showed up in the booking system that online and bricks and mortar travel agents use as a business class fare, although it was also listed as economy in the fare rules – hence our messages to the airline over the weekend,” he said to the paper.
