Uproar as BA cancels tickets sold too cheaply

BRITISH Airways has cancelled thousands of tickets after they were accidentally sold off too cheaply.

Holidaymakers rushed to snap up cut-price flights to Tel Aviv and Dubai which were sold via travel agents last week.

Return tickets which can cost up to £1,000 were being offered at between £167 and £300. But they have since been cancelled by the airline.

BA blamed the fiasco on an ‘exceptionally rare’ human error and has offered those affected a £100 voucher as well as a refund.

But furious passengers urged it to honour the tickets they bought in good faith. In the worst cases passengers are having to cancel holidays as they cannot afford the ‘real’ fare.

The boss of one travel agent said more than 2,000 of his customers have been hit by the

‘I am very disappointed’

error and that five other agencies sold tickets at the wrong price.

Travel Up chief Ali Shah said: ‘It’s very cruel for the customers because they have booked these flights in good faith and expected it to be honoured.’

Although the tickets were cheap, passengers said they were not cheap enough to presume they had been offered in error.

Guy Anker, of MoneySavingExpert.com, which broke the story, said: ‘BA must do the decent thing and honour these fares, it’s as simple as that.’

Ash Dubbay, from London, said he had booked a return flight to Tel Aviv for £195 but now has to pay around £1,000, adding: ‘I am very disappointed.’

A BA spokesman said last night: ‘We have apologised to customers and offered a gesture of goodwill. Errors like this are exceptionally rare.’