British Airways cancels hundreds of £200 tickets to Tel Aviv and Dubai
Thousands of passengers have been told that bookings they made on British Airways will not be honoured.
On 11 and 12 June BA flights to Tel Aviv and Dubai were put on sale through online travel agents at extremely low fares: around £200 return to Tel Aviv, and typically £220 return to Dubai.
Similar fares were offered with “add-on” domestic flights from other UK airports.
Frequent flyers quickly identified these as “mistake fares”, filed in error by the airline.
The Independent understands that passengers who had booked to fly imminently were allowed to travel on the mistakenly issued tickets. But those with longer horizons have been told that their bookings have been cancelled. British Airways is issuing refunds, though since these have to be made through the online agent, they may take weeks to materialise.
A spokesperson for British Airways said: “We’ve contacted the small number of travel agents who were able to access the incorrect fare for the short period it was available to advise them and apologise.
“We are fully refunding the tickets that were booked.”
In addition, BA is offering passengers whose bookings have been canceleld a voucher worth £100 on future British Airways flights. Using this credit, travellers can book return trips on BA to Dubai for around £360 return later this month – but not over Christmas and New Year, which is when Anthony Vale booked to travel from Manchester via Heathrow to Dubai.
He said: “I do not want a refund, I want them to honour my booking.”
Francine Wunch said: “Whilst surfing the net looking for a flight to Tel Aviv in December I stumbled across a flight with BA for only £212 return. I paid and got email confirming payment and invoice.
“A week later I have had an email stating that BA will not be honouring the payments for flights as there was a glitch and we are getting our money back plus £100. Are they allowed to do this?”
The law permits firms to annul purchases if it is clear that a pricing error has been made. With taxes, fees and charges amounting to over £200 on flights to Tel Aviv, and tickets sold for less than than that, BA can argue the fares were clearly mistakes. But prices on other airlines are significantly lower: Wizz Air is currently selling flights between Luton and Tel Aviv for £168 return.
A British Airways spokesperson said: “Errors like this are exceptionally rare, and if they do occur, under contract law, there is no binding contract between the parties.”
When such mistakes are made, the airline has to make a choice. It is generally able to make a full refund without compensation – though at the cost of negative publicity. Or it can honour the fares. It appears that British Airways has chosen a combination of both.
