It’s not fare! Cathay leaves thousands disappointed with HK$100 ticket promotion
Tens of thousands left disappointed after HK$100 tickets sell out in hours
Cathay Pacific's plan to please travellers with HK$100 business and premium economy tickets degenerated into a public relations disaster when it left tens of thousands of people disappointed yesterday.
More than 150,000 people logged on to the website in the hope of grabbing one of only 2,014 tickets up for grabs in an exercise that began at 8am.
The locally-based airline swiftly drew allegations that the promotion - meant to celebrate its fourth award as world's best airline from British consultancy Skytrax - was "a scam".
One defeated user said she spent the whole morning waiting for the website to load up, before it announced that all the tickets to 11 destinations had sold out in four hours.
Jo Tang, who mobilised her two smartphones and a computer to vie for tickets to Bangkok, London or Chicago, was already behind 9,000 others in the queue when she logged on at 7.45am.
"A few clicks later, it said 150,000 people were queuing," she said. "I was surprised how some people managed to buy tickets."