I too booked flights this morning & being suspicious of the price, i called Aer Lingus straight after I purchased the tickets (and after they had found the "bug" in their system)
The telephone operator said that while it was a glitch in their system, they would be honouring the flights. I also had my colleagues call Aer Lingus to confirm the reservations that they had made. They all got the same reply - they would honour the flights.
Later this afternoon I noticed that when I went to view my booking on the Aer Lingus website, it said my booking reference was invalid. So I called Aer Lingus again, this time I was informed that the booking was cancelled due to the technical glitch in their system.
I asked for the manager on duty in the call centre & was told that they would just tell me the same thing. About 10 minutes later I got a call informing me that the manager on duty would call me in about 15 minutes. When I heard nothing, i called them up again.
This time i got through to the manager. She said that because Aer Lingus did not intend to sell the flights at those fares, there was no "intent to sell" therefore the contract between Aer Lingus & I was void.
The fact that Aer Lingus displayed the fares at the €5 price tag, i would have thought, constituted their intention to sell. And, by sending a confirmation e-mail to me represents their entry into contract. (If they had waited to send the confirmation e-mail & cancelled it before I actually received it, then they would have a better argument)
Nowhere in the T&C's does it say that Aer Lingus has to right to cancel the booking or alter the price of the fare after it has been confirmed. If that is not part of the T&C on the contract that you & Aer Lingus are bound into when you place the booking with them, then they surely can't cancel your booking/change the price, can they?? If it's not in the contract, it can't be part of the contract right?
However, what is listed in the T&C's is....
"No agent, servant or representative of carrier has authority to alter, modify or waive any provision of this contract."
The citizens advice told me that Aer Lingus have entered into contract with you & that they have to honour the flights otherwise they are in breach of contract. I too told Aer Lingus this & said that i didn't want the refund of money, i wanted the flight. But of course the telephone operator is not empowered to do this.
So do we have any options here? I e-mailed Matt Cooper on TodayFM about this - i suggest that everyone else do the same.
At the end of the day, they could easily turn around & pull the "sorry, this fare was a glitch in our system" line, whenever they like & get away with it.