The Luck of the Irish

Customers who booked flights on the Aer Lingus website on Wednesday night lucked into an exceptionally good airfare: business-class flights from Ireland to Boston and New York for 5 euros ($7.90).

A glitch on the booking website of the Dublin-based airline allowed travelers to book a business flight for the price of a pint of stout during a test of a two-for-one special offer. About 100 people made the bookings over a 90-minute period before the mistake was discovered.

Aer Lingus at first canceled the business-class tickets, which normally sell for about 1,755 euros, apologizing and blaming the glitch in the website.

But the Consumers' Association of Ireland would have none of it, insisting that the airline had made binding contracts and that customers were due compensation.

From a legal standpoint, whether or not Aer Lingus was obligated to honor the deal hinged on whether customers genuinely believed that the 5-euro fare they signed up for was a legitimate price, rather than a mistake.

But legal issues aside, the episode quickly exploded into a public relations nightmare, with everyone from airline rivals to Irish Transport Minister Noel Demsey (the Irish government still has a piece of the formerly state-owned airline) calling on Aer Lingus to help the customers.

Discount rival Ryanair tried to make hay with the gaffe, announcing that it would "give away 100,000 5-euro seats on www.ryanair.com for travel in May and June, and unlike Aer Lingus' phantom 5-euro seats, Ryanair will honor them."

So Aer Lingus execs caved under the public pressure and agreed to a compromise: the 5-euro customers would get their flights if they flew economy class (still a significant savings on a fare that runs in the hundreds of euros).

"Following a full investigation of the booking error undertaken yesterday evening by the company, it appears that some customers may have genuinely believed that they were making a booking in economy class,'' Aer Lingus said in a statement

It's amazing what a little PR pressure will do.

by Liz Gunnison