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Southwest Airlines' bid to reward loyal customers with a half-price ticket sale has backfired, with passengers watching aghast as their credit cards were mistakenly over-billed nearly 40 times for a single round-trip flight.

The promotion was intended to celebrate the airlines' three millionth fan to its Facebook page.

Instead, that page is now topped with a contrite apology from the airline to a number of enraged clients unwittingly embroiled in the blunder.

'‎35+ duplicate charges on flights. They were wonderful on the phone about correcting it. Let's pray the money goes back soon!' wrote Maggie Olanie in the comments section located below the airline's apology.

Others weren't so lucky, regaling fellow Facebook users with nightmarish accounts of three-hour-plus-long hold times with customer service, as they toiled to connect with a live Southwest Airlines representative who could remedy the over-billings.

'‎36 confirmations,' wrote one of Southwest Airlines unintended victims.

'Over $7,000.00 in charges to my account, and 2 hours on the phone with SWA.

'I thought that this was just me, but apparently SOMEONE really dropped the ball here. PLUS it will take 7-10 days to process returns? Unacceptable.'

'Was ready to have a heart attack,' wrote one Lawrence Brobst. 'On hold for over 2 hours last nite and finally hung up. Checked email this am and had 20 confirmations and credit card charges.

'Wait time over 3 hours at web site phone number this morning,' Brobst added. 'Called reservations and waited 5 minutes. Agent took care of it after a 30-minute process.

'Hope it is. What a nite mare. Would think they would be better prepared for a sale and notify you in case of problems and act swiftly to correct them.'

Airline spokeswoman Ashley Dillon on Saturday blamed a 'technology glitch' for the overwhelming number of duplicate billings to debit and credit cards.

She said the airline does not yet know how many took advantage of their "luv2like" promotion that gave customers who booked flights on Friday a 50 per cent discount on certain fares.

She says officials at the airline are working to refund erroneous charges.

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the real ill will

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