Qantas to honour discounted flights after $15,000 pricing error

Qantas has committed to honouring hundreds of mistakenly discounted tickets after a coding error allowed travellers to book first-class international flights at prices up to 85% lower than usual. On August 22, return first-class flights between Australia and the US were briefly available for less than $5,000—about $15,000 below the regular price—due to a website glitch. Business-class fares were also offered at 65% off.

The error remained live for eight hours, allowing 300 customers to book these discounted flights. Although the terms and conditions on the Qantas website allow the airline to cancel bookings in cases of errors, Qantas has opted to rebook the affected customers into business class at no extra charge. Alternatively, customers can request a full refund.

The pricing mistake was first highlighted by OzBargain, a popular bargain-hunting site, which noted that the reduced fares were available for travel between September 2024 and June 2025, mainly for routes between Sydney, Melbourne, and the US. Despite the fares being labelled as “too good to be true,” Qantas has decided to honour the bookings as a goodwill gesture.