How a Typo Gave Thousands $39 Business-Class Flights

An Alitalia employee made a data entry mistake that turned into the deal of a lifetime. When updating fares on a central reservation system, the worker forgot to enter two extra digits - dropping Toronto-to-Cyprus business-class round trips from $2,258 to $39. The error fed straight through to Orbitz, one of the biggest online travel agencies, where thousands of deal-hunters pounced within hours. By the time anyone noticed, confirmation numbers were flying out faster than the planes themselves. Orbitz pulled the rate and contacted Alitalia, but the damage was done. The airline could have voided every ticket and blamed the glitch, but instead they honored the vast majority of bookings. Passengers who received official airline confirmations kept their seats. So for less than the cost of a large pizza, travelers got business-class seats on an international flight with a layover in Italy. Two missing digits filled every premium seat on multiple departure dates.

How Did the $39 Fare Happen?

An Alitalia worker was updating fares on the airline's central reservation system when they forgot to enter two digits. The system pushed the incorrect $39 fare to third-party booking sites, including Orbitz. The error appeared across multiple departure dates, giving deal-hunters plenty of options.

Why Did Alitalia Honor the Tickets?

Airlines can technically void error fares, but Alitalia chose to honor the vast majority of bookings. Passengers who had received official airline confirmation numbers kept their tickets. Only those who hadn't been officially ticketed before the error was caught were refunded their service fees instead.

The Route and the Bonus

The flights went from Toronto to Larnaca, Cyprus, with a connection through Italy. So passengers didn't just get a $2,219 discount - they got a business-class layover in Italy thrown in for the price of a fast-food meal.