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- Japan Airlines' Smile Campaign included a flat rate of $48 for one-way domestic tickets
- The airline's website crashed seconds after the tickets went on sale at midnight on March 9.
- The website was down for over 10 hours, leading the airline to discontinue the promotion.
A Japanese airline's flight deal of less than $50 for domestic flights was indeed too good to be true.
Almost as soon as Japan Airlines' latest promotion started it was over. The tickets went on sale at midnight local time on March 9 and the website crashed almost immediately. By early afternoon, the airline announced in a press release it was canceling the promotion.
Called the "JAL Smile Campaign", the promotion offered one-way domestic tickets for 6,600 yen, or $48, for adults, and 4,950 yen, or $36, for children according to Japanese news agency Kyodo News. The flat-rate tickets were for flights from April 14 to May 31.
The airline also canceled a similar promotion for flights in the month of June which was scheduled to go on sale on March 12.
According to the company's statement, the surge in demand made it "almost impossible" to access its website, affecting regular sales in addition to promotional ones. The airline said it was trying to fix the connection issues before it completely canceled the sale in a later release. The promotions will not be rescheduled.
The heavy demand for tickets is no doubt a positive sign for Japan's domestic tourism sector. Other Japanese airlines, like Airdo and ANA, are also planning similar promotions, according to Bloomberg, as Japan prepares to reclassify COVID-19 as a less dangerous disease and consider making wearing a mask optional on public transportation.
Japan opened its borders to visa-free foreign tourists in October 2022.