- China Southern Airlines sold tickets for as little as $1.40 due to an hours-long system glitch on Wednesday.
- The Chinese carrier said it’s honoring the ultra-low fares.
- Fares for a China Southern flight ticket from Chengdu to Beijing start around $55.
A Chinese carrier said it is honoring air tickets priced as low as 10 Chinese yuan, or around $1.40, that were sold due to a system glitch.
The glitch hit the China Southern Airlines app on Wednesday evening around 8 p.m., when Chinese social media users started saying flights to and from the Southwestern city of Chengdu were available in the 10 yuan to 30 yuan price range, according to media reports.
One screenshot circulating online showed a ticket from Chengdu to Beijing priced at 10 yuan. The starting rate for flights in the next week was around 400 yuan, according to an Insider scan of the airlines’ website.
The glitch also affected China Southern’s ticket prices across other ticketing platforms.
It’s unclear how many bargain-bin tickets China Southern sold and which flight routes were affected by the system glitch. The airline did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
China Southern Airlines posted on its official Weibo social media account on Thursday that the tickets paid for and issued during the system glitch are “all valid” and that customers can use them.
The Guangzhou-based airline also reminded travelers to check its promotions this coming weekend on the back of Singles’ Day — China’s biggest shopping event, which starts on Saturday this year.
Not all buyers of accidental super-cheap airfares are so lucky.
In April, some travelers managed to snag $10,000 roundtrip tickets on Japanese airline All Nippon Airways for just $300. This was due to a currency glitch.
ANA said days later it would not honor the flights that were “erroneously processed” and that it would cancel and fully refund them.”
