ANA Holdings Inc cancelled flight tickets that were sold in error at a fraction of their usual prices last week, avoiding a hit to its finances but disappointing customers who’d snapped up premium seats ultra-cheaply.

Airfares - including for first-class spots that usually cost thousands of dollars - were listed at deep discounts following a currency conversion error on ANA’s Vietnam website. Opportunists jumped upon the mistake, with one snagging round-trip first-class flights from Jakarta to the Caribbean for US$890 .

Or so he thought.

ANA said the flights would be cancelled and everyone refunded. It said the currency conversion error was related to a technical issue in a fare-quote system provided by Amadeus IT Group SA.

“I have taken advantage of a few amazing fares,” said Omaha, Nebraska-based Lucas Corbett, who spent US$2,168 on four business-class return tickets from Jakarta to the US. “Would have loved to have taken the family. It’s disappointing they didn’t honour it.”

An Amadeus spokesperson confirmed that a technical error relating to currency conversion “temporarily led, in some instances, to incorrect pricing being displayed for specific cabin classes for ANA.”

Amadeus said it has fixed the issue.

“For the flights which were erroneously processed, ANA will cancel and fully refund all itineraries,” the Japanese airline said in a statement Tuesday. “ANA will notify each customer affected by the error. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience, and appreciate your cooperation in communicating with us.”

Keith Van paid US$354 for a return Jakarta-New York ticket in business class. He said he was disappointed that ANA had left people in the dark for a week without any communication.

 - Bloomberg