What are the Halachic implications of yesterday's El Al airfare snafu? In brief, El Al's air tickets were being sold online very cheap for a while; the price was later corrected, and El Al claimed the price had been due to a third party's error; and by law El Al must honor the low price for paid-for tickets.
Most of the issues I can think of are really variations on the same theme:
If you knew it was an error, could you buy the tickets?
If you did not know but assumed it was an error, could you buy the tickets?
If you thought it might possibly be an error, could you buy the tickets?
If you did not realize it was an error but your travel agent mentioned as much while booking your tickets, should you have stopped him from executing the transaction?
If you had no idea until after purchasing the tickets, do you have an obligation to offer to El Al to make amends (whether that means asking to cancel without penalty or offering the pay the difference or even canceling despite taking a penalty)?
Does the fact that El Al has virtually no way of forcing passengers to pay the difference or of canceling their tickets make any difference to my last question above?
In terms of application, I think this can be used as a perfect model for varying degrees of the same issue, that can arise in practically any business.
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