A three-hour glitch that drastically lowered round-trip airfare between New York and Israel on El Al Airlines created a run on tickets. At least 5,000 tickets were purchased Monday after El Al posted fares for about $350, down from an average of $1,600.
The accidental deal on El Al flights from JFK airport to Tel Aviv was first discovered by a Twitter user. A buying frenzy quickly started after his post was picked up by the deal notification website, DansDeals.com. Many purchased tickets for members of their large families. El Al blames the glitch on a contractor responsible for posting fares. It says it will decide this week whether to honor the tickets.
El Al said they would be making an official announcement today as to their final decision regarding the tickets.
Update: Official statements released by EL-Al
EL AL ISRAEL AIRLINES IS HONORING ALL REDUCED
FARE TICKETS PURCHASED ON INTERNET SITES
EARLIER THIS WEEK.
OPTION TO FLY NONSTOP IS AVAILABLE.
EL AL Israel Airlines is announcing that the tickets which were purchased on a variety of travel internet sites and ticketed earlier this week (on August 6th) will be honored. In addition, EL AL is offering a more convenient option to anyone who has been ticketed at one of these low fares on flights from the USA to Israel.
The tickets that these passengers are currently holding are for travel via a stopover in Europe in both directions. However, to better accommodate these passengers, EL AL is offering a choice to travel nonstop roundtrip to Israel from New York (JFK or Newark) for an additional cost of $75 each way. Yet another choice is that EL AL is offering a full refund without penalty to anyone wishing to cancel their tickets.
To take advantage of the nonstop flights or to cancel, passengers holding these tickets should email EL AL between August 14 and 31, 2012 via email to flydirect@elalusa.com and an EL AL representative will respond to the request.
Thursday, August 09, 2012
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