Error in VA's sales fare (HBA-OOL)

[Virgin Bart]

Hi all.

First up, I'm irritated.

Here's why.. So as we all know VA have released some fantastic fares to/from OOL for a fantastically long travel period. This makes me happy.

According to the sale page of their website:

MEL-OOL and vv $75 - heaps of availability,
SYD-OOL and vv $39 - heaps of availability,
LST-OOL and vv $95 - heaps of availability,
HBA-OOL and vv $79 - but not a single flight available at that price over the 10 month of so period. Simple error on VA's behalf, no doubt.

So, I send VA a PM on Facebook: I'm a Velocity Silver trying to book some flights HBA-OOL for my friend at your sale rate ($79) but there isn't a single availability now until August '13 at that price. Cheapest is $180. Obviously this sale hasn't been "switched on" as the sale only begun 30 minutes ago.. Could you please rectify this or inform me of what's occurring. Thanks in advance.

VA reply: Hi Bart, was this for happy hour? Sale fares are subject to availability and are only valid for travel within a specified period.

My reply: No, it IS for the Gold Coast sale which is on now, until tomorrow. There hasn't been a single seat sold at the price advertised. Please look into this and get it activated, because I have checked every single day (over the 10 month validity period) and there is not a single seat available.

So, reckon they'll get it done before sale ends tomorrow?

Thanks for listening, Bart.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Pretty annoying. If you advised them of this error last night, they certainly should of rectified the situation by now or I'd have to assume false advertising that works very much in their favour. I'd only just mentioned to my wife we could go to Hobart for a holiday and I just had a quick look and you're right (for the dates I checked).......OOL-HBA, cheapest for this year $180. No $79 fares through to year end. I won't continue with the checking, as you've already done that, but poor effort to advertise something that's not offered and then fail to rectify it when notified of the problem. I gather VA will simply say "sold out, sorry" and maybe they did have 1 fare at that price which did sell out!

 

[greenfish]

I've had this happen twice before om some DJ TT flights, advertised fares just didn't exist. The second time I spotted the issue I queried this - after about 3 calls they did fix it. So keep pestering them.

On the current trans-tasman sale they've managed to mis-align their HLZ fares with NZ, so it is cheaper to book the DJ flights ex HLZ with NZ than with DJ, though only by a few dollars.

 

[Virgin Bart]

Very disappointing reply IMO. And TBH I don't think it's an honest answer considering the LST-OOL and vv fare:

Hi Bart, we've been notified that this was a technical glitch and those fares shouldn't have displayed in the best fares page as they are not on sale. Apologies about this

 

[medhead]

I had a quick look for ADL-OOL for $88 and couldn't see any such fares - only a limited search however.


Sent from the Throne

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I had a quick look for ADL-OOL for $88 and couldn't see any such fares - only a limited search however.

Adelaide was another option we were thinking about........oh, well