The passengers told Khaleej Times that Gulf Air had offered a business class ticket for $75, including taxes, and $80 for flights scheduled for early morning. But Gulf Air said it was a system error, and an incorrect currency conversion, and that they couldn't help it.

"I was booked along with my wife and baby daughter to fly on January 21 morning and return on February 1. Then I got a call on January 20 and was told that there was a system error and can't fly on that ticket. I am angry because I actually had a confirmed ticket on Syrian Air which I cancelled when I got to know of this offer," said Anand Jeswani, an Abu Dhabi-based businessman.

He said the booking was made after providing credit card details after which he was given an invoice and flight confirmation details.

He said that on Wednesday morning, he got a written apology from Gulf Air for the 'obvious inconvenience' caused to him.

However, the apology does not help, he said, as he is now unable to secure any confirmations this week to Mumbai. Girish Satnani, a Dubai-based businessman, who was scheduled to fly this week on the same flight, was so taken in by the offer that he booked five tickets in advance for his family for April 2004.

Mahendar Asarpota, another passenger, showed a letter from Gulf Air Online, which he received yesterday, informing him that "although our fares are not guaranteed until the tickets are issued, we have noticed that our online reservation system, for one reason or another, has been quoting wrong fares on certain routes."

He was also informed that the tickets could not be issued to him at this fare, and that the actual fare for the sector (Abu Dhabi-Mumbai) was Dh3,410.

The aggrieved passengers all urged the airline to honour its commitments and allow passengers to fly at the fare. The ticket prices were altered and the errors rectified yesterday, after the web site shut down for a short period.

"This calls into question several pressing points: one is whether the transaction should not be binding for Gulf Air at the agreed price, the second regarding the laws in the UAE pertaining to the validity of online purchases and transactions, and finally why, if Gulf Air was aware of this glitch since January 20 evening, did it not rectify it for over 24 hours?" asked Edwin, a computer professional from Abu Dhabi.

Khaleej Times contacted Gulf Air's Bahrain headquarters to get the airline's comments and was informed by senior customer relations officials that "an incorrect fare was published in the online booking system when a system error resulted in an incorrect currency conversion. When the error was brought to Gulf Air's attention, all customers who had made bookings on the basis of the incorrect fare were notified of the mistake by email and were given the option to take up the booking based on the correct fare or rebook in another class. Affected stations, including Abu Dhabi, were also notified of the error." The airline also said that while it regretted the inconvenience to passengers, "and would like to apologise to all affected passengers," ..."(it) is not legally obliged to honour the bookings made on this basis, as is noted on the web site where a statement says: "Fares are not guaranteed until ticketed."