An aircraft operated by Qantas Airways Ltd. prepares to land at Sydney Airport in Sydney, Australia, on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021. PHOTO: Brendon Thorne / Bloomberg via Getty Images
Paying extra for additional legroom is one of the more infuriating aspects of air travel. Even more infuriating? Being asked to pay almost $800 million for it.Australian comedian Dave O'Neil, who later described himself as a “big man,” was flying for the first time since the pandemic hit Australia in March last year. But after deciding to book a seat on Qantas with extra legroom for his flight to Perth, he was amused to see the price pop up: $987,999,999 in Australian dollars, which works out to a little more than USD$770 million.Like any comedian presented with readymade joke material, he tweeted about it."Hey Qantas, all I wanted was extra legroom on my flight to Perth, very happy to pay for it but this seems a bit expensive," he said in a viral tweet on Sunday, drawing some hilarious reactions from his fans.
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Some people asked O’Neil if he accidentally bought the airplane.
"I just got on the app and went for extra legroom," O'Neil told the Traveller website in an interview.He said the exorbitant fee, which appeared to be a glitch in the booking system, remained on the Qantas booking app over the weekend. The official Twitter account for Qantas replied to the comedian’s viral tweet, acknowledging that the fee was “slightly over the normal price,” and it would investigate the matter.
A spokesperson for the airline later told 9News the price displayed was “definitely a bit of a stretch.”"We can confirm the passenger was charged the correct amount of $70 [AUD] per sector for the extra legroom and we're investigating what caused the incorrect amount to be displayed," the spokesperson said.