Air NZ sorry for Hawaii fare gaffe

A flight to Hawaii for less than $500 return has to be a mistake, right? Unfortunately, it seems it was.

Air New Zealand admits it was ‘‘our bad’’ and not a late April Fools’ joke, when it advertised the wrong price online for one-way and return flights from Auckland to Hawaii.

Early yesterday morning, flights to Honolulu were advertised on Grabaseat for $499 return, or $159 one way.

However, when people clicked on the flights to try to book them, the prices were restated as $499 one way, rather than $499 return.

The airline emailed customers to apologise soon after realising the mistake.

‘‘You may or may not have spotted a $499 return fare (or $159 one way) to Honolulu this morning in our daily alerts email and thought it was so cheap it must be a late April Fools’ joke,’’ the email said.

‘‘I guess we look the fool this time because it was a genuine mistake on our part and has now been corrected.’’

The correct fare to Honolulu departing from around New Zealand started from $499 one way and about $992 return.

Annoyed customers took to Facebook to express their views.

One woman said: ‘‘False advertising. $499 return to Hawaii but click the link and it’s $499 one way. Not impressed.’’

Another said: ‘‘Hey Air NZ, a grabaseat email this morning has AKL to Honolulu return for $499, but when you go onto the website it says that $499 is one way? Super misleading – not happy.’’

The Commerce Commission said companies weren’t bound to honour prices in advertisements if they were a ‘‘genuine mistake’’.

However, advertising incorrect prices is technically a breach of the Fair Trading Act, for which the commission can bring prosecutions.

A commission spokeswoman said it was not aware of any complaints about Air New Zealand’s error, though it had received one ‘‘query’’ via Facebook.