Free airfares do not compute

The old saying that “you don’t get something for nothing” is one of the few universal truisms. There are always strings attached to a great deal.

But now, Chicago-based United Airlines has come along and turned that on its head by saying that it will honour tickets accidentally issued to online customers at no charge.

The result is that many – the airline won’t say how many – people will be taking flights worth hundreds of dollars and paying only the compulsory ground-security fee of $5 or $10 (Dh18 or Dh36).

It’s tempting to say that this is a reassuring case of a computer error being put right by human intervention – except that’s not quite the case.

It was a human error that caused the glitch in the first place, and not everyone is happy. Customer Mike Nehmer told Associated Press that he changed his free ticket to a paid one after a United Airlines staff member told him – wrongly – that the no-cost fare wouldn’t be honoured.

It’s worth remembering that as much as they make our lives easier, computers are only as good as the humans who feed in the data.