If you travel domestically in South Africa, you've probably booked a flight online before. And being a savvy and cost conscious traveller, you know that it's wise to check for different flights to get the best price. What you probably didn't know however, is that doing so on kulula.com can land you with a flight you never wanted.

It works like this: You search for a flight, agree to the terms and conditions and fill out your details. Before clicking the submit button however, you decide to open up another tab and check out a similar flight, perhaps from a nearby airport or at a different time of day. That search proves fruitless, so you revert to your original tab and click submit. Lo and behold, you're paying for and flying the flight you rejected.

It's easy to test this anonymously, without spending a cent:

1. Open up Firefox.
2. Search for a flight from Lanseria to Cape Town and go to step 2.
3. Check the legal stuff and submit for step 3.
4. Fill out some anonymous details and select "Pay Later" - but don't submit the form!
5. Open up a new tab.
6. Search for a flight from OR Tambo to Cape Town and go to step 2.
7. Check the legal stuff and submit for step 3.
8. Go back to your first tab. Note that the flight is from Lanseria.
9. Click submit on the Lanseria flight - you're now flying from OR Tambo!

Technically, the problem exists because they store the flight details in a user session identified with a cookie, and those details get overwritten with the new search. For most ecommerce sites, you'd never notice, but the nature of searching for flights is such that several users, including our own Santi, have been burnt by the issue. It's akin to signing a contract and being held accountable for another merely because you read it.

What makes it worse is that the call centre do not accept blame for the problem, and insist on charging you a cancellation fee. So, here's hoping someone at Kulula takes notice and fixes the problem. Until then, you have been warned!