United Airlines "fantasy fares"

For a 55-minute period on January 31, 2002, you could purchase tickets for airline travel on United Airlines web site for extraordinarily cheap prices; essentially taxes and fees only.  The tickets were nothing short of the
sale of the century -- San Francisco to Paris, for instance, for $24.98 round-trip, with similar deals for flights
to Hong Kong and other cities.  United revealed that 143 tickets were sold before the web site was corrected.

The media quickly learned of the error. United told the world that it was a mistake and they would not honor the tickets. They even went so far as to start to charge the credit cards of the purchasers the amount of money the tickets should have cost. They offered refunds or a voucher all the while sounding very 'legalese' in their press releases. United blamed the "fantasy fares" on a computer error and said that people should have known the prices were too good to be true. That angered ticket-buyers, who said listed fares should be binding even if they were unintended. After lots of negative media coverage and threats of law suits, United finally agreed to honor the 143 tickets for the sake of customer relations.

It's estimated that United lost about $100,000.