Curse you, people who landed $16,000 first class seats for $1,100

Cathay Pacific's pricing error led to a very happy new year for some lucky passengers.
 By 
Johnny Lieu
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

While we toil on travel sites looking to save a couple of bucks on a squishy flight, spare a thought (or your jealousy) for these people who snagged the travel deal of a lifetime.

Cathay Pacific sold premium business and first-class tickets from the U.S. to Vietnam for a fraction of the price, thanks to an error on the airline's website.

Spotted by travel bloggers on New Year's Eve, return first class fares between New York and Hanoi were going for $1,100, which would usually set you back about $16,000.

For the cost-conscious, you could've picked up a return business class flight to Da Nang from several U.S. cities from $675. These tickets usually go for around $6,000.

Cathay Pacific quickly worked to fix the mistake, but for those who were lucky enough to snap the tickets up, the airline went ahead and honoured the deal.

"To those who bought our good - VERY good surprise 'special' on New Year's Day, yes - we made a mistake but we look forward to welcoming you on board with your ticket issued," the airline wrote in a tweet.

One person who seemingly managed to snap the ultra-cheap fare up was Mac Jaehnert. He tweeted that his "new year's resolution is to spend as much of 2019 as possible eating caviar and napping in the sky."

"I thought, this has got to be either a once in a lifetime deal, or possibly a mistaken fare, possibly both," he told the BBC.

The pricing error is the most welcome of blunders for Cathay Pacific. It's also recently made headlines for spelling its own name wrong on its own airplane, and a massive data breach which hit 9.4 million customers.

Here's hoping for another "surprise" special for the rest of us.

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Johnny Lieu

Mashable Australia's Web Culture Reporter.Reach out to me on Twitter at @Johnny_Lieu or via email at jlieu [at] mashable.com

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