BRITISH holiday-goers were left buzzing after finding cut-price last-minute flights to Santorini for less than the cost of a McDonald’s meal.
Louise Donaldson discovered the unbelievable offer on Wednesday after checking last-minute deals on travel company TUI’s website.
The 53-year-old couldn’t believe her eyes when she noticed that return flights to the Greek hotspot from Manchester Airport yesterday were up for grabs at a staggering price of just £5.42 per person.
This means the 3,500 mile-round trip works out at less than the price of a Double Big Mac from McDonald’s, which would set punters back £5.89.
The deal, which saw the flight leave Manchester Airport yesterday morning at 7am, offered sun-seekers a whole week in the Mediterranean paradise, with return flights due next Thursday at 2pm.
The offer even included a 15kg baggage allowance with an additional 20kg bag being an optional extra for £18 – more than three times the cost of the flights themselves.
Louise from Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire took to social media on Wednesday to share a screenshot of the offer.
She also included a screenshot of a hotel in Santorini called the Caldera View Resort which had seemingly been viewed by over 12,000 people in just one hour, presumably due to the cheap offer.
Louis wrote in a caption: “‘If anyone is able to fly at very short notice from Manchester at 7am tomorrow morning then you can have a week in Santorini for £5.42pp each. Thank me now!’
The post has since been liked by more than 450 people and has received dozens of comments, but it seems the deal was too good to be true for many.
One user wrote: “I am literally on annual leave with no holiday plans, seriously considering this.”
Another said: “This is legit if you can fly from Manchester tomorrow…and people say last minute deals are a thing of the past!”
A third posted a screenshot of the hotel in question, showing that it costs £798 per person for seven nights, saying: “I was raring to go as well.”
Another commented a screenshot of the TUI web page with a technical fault error message when trying to book, writing: “Technical fault.”
A fifth user posted a picture of today’s date with the price being listed as £582 instead, adding: “They have sussed it.”
Speaking today business development manager Louise said: “I had just gone onto to TUI’s website and clicked on their last minute deals and it came up.
“I didn’t try to book it at first as it was to fly yesterday morning and I was at work but a friend of mine tried to book it and at the end of the process it said they had a technical error and it wouldn’t finalise.
“We didn’t know if that was because so many people were trying to book it at once or not. I have checked the site again this morning and it’s no longer there.
“I told everyone sat around me in the office at work, they all then went on their PCs to see if it came up on theirs which it did.
“I was then joking and pretending to cough saying ‘Oh I don’t feel too well, I might not make it into work tomorrow’ and we were all laughing.
“Then we were saying what must be wrong with the hotel, would it be something like a bush tucker trial but I checked TripAdvisor and the reviews for it were great!”
Speaking today a Tui spokesperson said: “Unfortunately, a technical error meant our website was incorrectly showing a holiday package to Santorini for £5. The holiday in question was already sold out and no longer bookable.
“We do offer great value deals but this was unfortunately a technical blip. We appreciate our customers being understanding as our IT teams work to resolve the issue.”
