It was late on a chilly night, a few days after Thanksgiving last year, when the flight deal alerts started going out on Twitter — flights from almost anywhere in the U.S. to New Zealand were on sale for around $400 round trip on United.com.

Here is what I tweeted.

Considering that round trips to New Zealand typically start at around $1k, this was a superb price.

Was it an intentional Cyber Monday deal, or a mistake fare? The question remains.

Because New Zealand was at the top of my bucket list, this was the sale I’d been waiting for.

I booked two tickets for early June. Continue reading →