Glitch Means Free Flights
United Airlines computer glitch results in more free flights: Carrier accuses travelers of manipulation
Yet another glitch on the United Airlines website gave travelers shockingly-low ticket fares on Monday. But unlike the infamous September errors that offered $5 to $10 round-trip flights, company execs are refusing to honor this new batch of reservations.
This time around, the glitch is more of a crafty consumer work around than a bug. BuzzFeed posted an email from an anonymous reader explaining how travelers used a 10-minute process to essentially confuse United's MileagePlus program into covering flights with free air miles:
Go on to on united.com, enter your frequent flyer information, choose a miles flight, select both flights you want to book, then open a new window but leave the old one open as well. Select the same flights, booking with dollars this time. Refresh the first window, then refresh the second window. The second window should show that you have enough points to book the flight. Then you enter in your credit card info and just pay the tax/fee. You should get a confirmation email. If you don’t have a united frequent flyer number, you can create one."
While the hack was fully operational Monday, CultureMap was unable to secure itself a cheap California getaway Tuesday morning. (Admittedly though, the BuzzFeed instructions are not entirely clear.)
United spokesperson Rahsaan Johnson told Mashable — which first reported on the glitch — that the airline won't honor low fares obtained by customers "intentionally manipulating" the website. Prices from the September system mistake, he added, were honored because they were caused by "human error" by United's own personnel.
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