Last week, Tyler & I booked tickets on United for our summer trip back to the States. We got three first-class tickets to the US in August for a total of $241.

I'll let that sink in for a minute.

$241 USD for three first class tickets to the US. $80 bucks a piece.

The United site was offering tickets at crazy low prices, and (thanks to the tip of my office!) we were able to book flights back to the States for summer vacation and Christmas.

After we booked two trips, we looked at each other and said: "Where do we want to go in the world that we have never been able to afford? Thailand? Australia? South Africa? South Africa!!"

We started to look through the site, but then everything fell apart. The site slowed to a glacial pace and United shut down the booking feature. The next morning, we woke up to a curt email that briefly stated our tickets were cancelled and the fares we purchased at were not being honored. (As someone with a marketing/PR background, I can't tell you in less than ten minutes how poorly they handled the situation and how low my opinion of them is. But that's for another day.)

Our dream of flying first-class for a fraction of the cost was extinguished.... but the spark for South Africa has been lit. Ah, I want to go so badly. It seems like the neatest place, doesn't it? Great culture. Unique landscape. Gorgeous animals. And who are cooler than the South Africans? No one!

So no South African dream vacation for us in the near future... but perhaps a few items to ease the pain? (Actually, I may need a lot of them to ease this pain.) Oof. #unitedfail

While the normal blogger question at this point would be: "Have you ever been to South Africa?," I'm going in a different direction. Here's my question: If you were a United Exec, what would you have done if you sold hundreds of tickets at the wrong fare on your own website?