British Airways accidentally promotes rival Virgin Atlantic deal

Friendly rivalry? British Airways mistakenly promoted Virgin Atlantic deal. (Virgin Atlantic)

Virgin Atlantic is offering a great travel deal to London.

Just ask British Airways.

Wait…what?

Someone on British Airways' social media team may have to start looking for a new job after a post-- that has since gone viral--  was sent out promoting flights from Virgin Atlantic, the airline’s top rival. On Wednesday, the company shared a Virgin Atlantic facebook post that encouraged customers to book a non-stop trip to London because "there's never been a better time" to visit.

The gaffe did not go unnoticed by the airline's social media followers.

Virgin also quickly caught on to the error and replied by thanking their rival: “Thanks British Airways! So kind of you to share! #onethingweagreeon #flyvirginatlantic”

British Airways later updated their post (but they haven't deleted it): “Finally we agree on something except for how to get there. #FlyBAtoLondon."

The unintentional plug was a nice boost for Virgin Atlantic-- they have 510,000 followers on Facebook while British Airways has 2.5 million.

“We were quite surprised to see that British Airways shared our post, however, on this occasion, we do agree with them that Virgin Atlantic is the only way to fly,” a Virgin Atlantic spokesperson told the Daily Mail. “As the individual must have had a bad day, we'd be happy to offer them a free flight to make up for it!”

A free flight would certainly brighten someone's day but for rest of us, it actually is a pretty great time to visit The Big Smoke. Flights to the U.K. are now relatively affordable and the value of the British pound recently hit a 31-year low compared to the dollar post-Brexit making a good time for Americans to consider a trip across the pond.

Following the Brexit vote, July 2016 turned out to be a record month for tourism to the U.K., The Guardian reported.

In just one month, 3.8 million people visited Great Britain, spending over $3 billion. That spending signaled a four-percent increase from July 2015.

The jump in tourism also came amid a record 2015 for the U.K., where the country saw more than 36 million inbound visitors.