United Airlines will be providing seats free of any airfare from the airline for passengers who booked for destinations with ridiculously low airfare on Thursday. The occurrence is the result of erroneous airfare being posted on the official website of the airline. Customers surfing the official website on Thursday took advantage of the situation and made bookings to numerous domestic flights, ranging as far as Hawaii.
The opportunity went viral, and as the news spread, more and more communities hailing from offices and neighborhoods confirmed their future air travels with United Airlines for charges varying between $5 and $10. These charges are consistent of ticket security fees implemented in the US, as well as airport charges for services.
After realizing the error, United Airlines temporarily shut down its official website as well as its customer booking service hotlines. All booking services became active with the original charges for flights to each of the destinations. The airline has not disclosed approximately how many tickets it sold for free, or whether how much loss the airline has incurred due to the erroneous airfares. It has only clarified that all the bookings made on erroneous airfare would be declared valid under necessary protocol, and thus all the passengers will avail their flights for ridiculously low charges as stated.
It has been speculated that the United Airlines automated Shares Reservation System did not create the error; rather it was the result of a human mistake within the system. The free tickets were issued via the official website of the airline, without involving any intermediary agents or booking service.
United Airlines is the largest air operator of America, having established 8 domestic hubs across the US. It has a global network coverage spanning over Europe, Central Asia and Oceania, apart from the entire North and South America. It is also the founder of the Star Alliance of commercial aviation.
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