Air China glitch offers free tickets

Passengers buying international airline tickets online got a bargain of a lifetime after a computer glitch offered flights for free, Beijing Times reported.

Air China's website booking system suffered a series of technical problems on the evening of July 10 resulting in business class seats being sold for just the price of the tax.

A passenger surnamed Sun said tickets from Beijing to Sydney, Bangkok and Melbourne all displayed zero cost on the airline's website. He said, "The tax price was normal. I clicked an icon to look into the details, then I found out it was business class."

Round trip tickets from Beijing to Sydney sold for 2,000 yuan ($313.48) plus tax. And the round trip tickets from Beijing to Bangkok were 1,132 yuan plus tax. Sun booked two tickets from Beijing to Bangkok at 11:50 pm on July 10.

Another passenger in Guangzhou also booked a round trip economy tickets to Australia for 2,000 yuan plus tax.

On July 12, Air China announced on its micro blog it will cover the losses caused by the booking system error and passengers could travel for the price listed.

The message read: "We repaired the bugs as soon as we find out the problem. The company decided to bear the relevant losses as we think our integrity is the most important thing."

But Bi Wenqiang, a lawyer at Beijing Sheng Ting Law Office argued the law could allow the airline to cancel or change the tickets.