Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Err France:
Roundtrips to
Paris were going
for $167

A reservations system
glitch sends tickets flying

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Fly Honolulu to Paris and back for $167.

That was the incredible offer that, for a few short hours, had phone lines jammed and agents busy yesterday at some Honolulu travel agencies and airline reservations offices. At least several dozen buyers grabbed the chance for a cheap trip to France.

The $167 roundtrip fare, which includes all taxes and airport fees, is about one-tenth the cheapest regular fare, one travel agent said.

The fare, for trips from Honolulu to Los Angeles on Delta or United airlines and Los Angeles-Paris nonstop on Air France, apparently was first noticed at United's Ala Moana Center booking office but the word quickly spread. The tickets are good for travel starting in November.

Clearly the result of a typing error or some other glitch somewhere in a computer reservations system, the fare nevertheless was in the computer.

And the computer, which didn't know the fare was wrong, just went on confirming reservations at that price, said Geoffrey Ross, a supervisor at International Travel Service. He said his agency alone sold 40 or 50 at the low price.

"It's a valid fare," said Lauren Wright, United Airlines ticketing manager in Honolulu. Wright said she had no count late this morning of how many of the cheap tickets were sold and she said she did not know how the cost would be shared among the airlines.

Ross said the fare apparently showed up in computers about 10 a.m. yesterday and was there until about 4 p.m

The word raced around the island. "People just sort of lined up waiting to book this," Ross said. One agent at International talked to a client by speaker phone in the client's office and others in the office lined up at the speaker to get their orders in, he said.

Diane Cornman, an Air France spokeswoman in New York, had not heard about the problem early today and the airline was busy with another situation, a strike by cabin crews that forced it to cancel half the flights out of Paris.

After checking, however, she later said the airline will honor the tickets "as long as they have been issued automated." In other words, tickets issued and printed out by computer are good, but handwritten tickets will not be honored.