To celebrate hitting three million Facebook fans, Southwest Airlines ran a half-price ticket sale Friday.
But there was a surprise for some customers: Their credit cards were billed multiple times for the same ticket.
Airline spokeswoman Ashley Dillon on Saturday blamed a "technology glitch" for the duplicate billings to debit and credit cards.
The airline posted a statement on its media web page that says, in part, "We have all hands on deck ... actively working to process refunds for any duplicate charges involved."
Some customers were charged more than 30 times for the same ticket, causing maxed-out credit cards, locking up banking accounts and creating a phone jam with people trying to find out what happened.
"I had 39 reservations and $19,000 worth of charges," Southwest customer Lisa Frabott posted on Facebook. "After spending 3 1/3 hours on hold, getting disconnected and then calling back to wait another half-hour, Jennifer (with customer service) was amazing and took care of everything."
Anthony White posted:
"I was shut out from the sale because my flight was full. Now I'm seeing it really wasn't full. It was from your computer selling multiple seats. We're getting ripped because of your error."
Dillon says the airline doesn't yet know how many took advantage of their "luv2like" promotion that gave customers who booked flights at a 50 percent discount on certain fares.
Some customers say they were charged but never got a confirmation or ticket.
The promotion was to celebrate the airlines' three million Facebook fans milestone.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.