AER LINGUS has capitulated to widespread criticism and the threat of legal action by agreeing to reinstate hundreds of €5 tickets to the US it had earlier cancelled.
In a complete reversal of its earlier stance, the airline yesterday agreed to allow 300 customers fly to the US on the €5 tickets they had booked earlier in the week. However, the seats now offered are in economy class, rather than the business class seats costing €1,775 each way they had booked and which were cancelled by the airline later on Wednesday.
The change of heart will cost the company €150-200,000 in lost fares, considerably less than about €1 million it would have lost if all the customers were able to avail of the business class tickets they had originally booked.
However, the cost to the company's image following a torrent of criticism and international coverage of the episode may be even greater.
"Hands up - we handled it badly," admitted the airline's commercial manager Enda Corneille, who promised the affair would be the subject of an internal investigation next week.
The National Consumer Agency, which had intervened on behalf of the affected customers in meetings with the company over the past two days, welcomed the decision.
"We think Aer Lingus has made a very reasonable offer which will be acceptable to most consumers," said NCA chief executive Ann Fitzgerald. "However, the NCA would advise consumers that if they do not wish to accept the compensation now on offer from Aer Lingus, they are entitled in our view to take legal action against the company."
While many customers said they were satisfied with the compromise, a number indicated their unhappiness and said they wanted to travel business class. Unless agreement is reached with the airline, these customers may have to take a case to the Small Claims Court to attain their objective.
On Thursday evening, an Aer Lingus spokeswoman insisted it would be standing firm on its decision to cancel the €5 flights, arguing that customers must have known a mistake had been made. However, yesterday morning, after further investigation of the website booking process, the company announced the U-turn in a brief statement.
This acknowledged that some customers may have genuinely believed they were making a booking in economy class. It continued: "It is regrettable that this technical error occurred and Aer Lingus recognises and accepts that customers were upset and inconvenienced. Aer Lingus apologises unreservedly to all customers."
Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey had earlier called on the company to rectify the mistake.