Ticketek struggled to cope with demand as hundreds rushed to secure tickets for Saturday's Super Rugby final.

As the first lot of tickets to the weekend's Super Rugby final sold out in under a minute, Trade Me says it can't do anything about scalping.

Tickets are being sold for hundreds of dollars over official prices on Trade Me. One listing has two tickets for sale for $400 each.

Ticketek's website opened at 3.30pm on Monday, before tickets officially went on sale at 4pm, but most people in the virtual queue were told they would be able to buy tickets only once other customers have left the site.

KEVIN STENT/ FAIRFAX NZ A queue of 350 people waited hours to buy Super Rugby final tickets at Ticketek in central Wellington on Monday. Only 25 were successful.

Hurricanes chief executive James Te Puni said more tickets would be available on Wednesday morning, when the balance of those held for members and commercial partners' needs were released to the public.

Westpac Stadium was also looking at installing extra seating, to cram more fans into the ground.

"It's not too extreme to say we could have sold 70,000 or 80,000 or 90,000 tickets to this game, I don't think that's fanciful at all," Te Puni said on Monday.

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Devastated fans have complained about the scalping. Debbie Pearce said:

"Is this legal through Ticketek? Why does Trade Me allow it? And how can people be so greedy and self-centred that they will turn an awesome event into a self-gratifying money-maker.

"It's repulsive, and people like this should not be allowed to take advantage of everyday Kiwis who just want to enjoy a good game of world-class rugby."

Trade Me spokesman Paul Ford said those scalping tickets were not breaking the law. "For the vast majority of events, people are allowed to on-sell legitimate tickets, so Trade Me's position is that we have always allowed them to be sold.

"It is not our job to enforce the terms and conditions of a third party like a ticketing agency, for example, as we don't have oversight of how the tickets were originally acquired."

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Hurricanes fan Jim Acheson was determinded to get his ticket the old-fashioned way, and was in an actual queue from lunchtime on Monday at Wellington's central city Ticketek outlet.

Acheson, of Mt Victoria, was second in line at the central city outlet and said he wanted to get in early to ensure his place in the crowd history as both teams chase their first Super Rugby title.

"The Hurricanes are going to win but it's going to be a wonderful competition, and it's great that it's an all-Kiwi final," Acheson said.

The frustrating message that greeted Super rugby fan Carol Stewart as she tried to buy tickets to the final this weekend

About 2000 tickets have already been sold to Wellington Rugby Football Union members.

Meanwhile, Air New Zealand has pulled in one of its international jets for a special one-off service to get Highlanders fans to the capital.

Airline tickets went on sale on Monday morning, with extra seats between Dunedin and Wellington selling out in under an hour. A Boeing 767 service has now been added for Saturday morning with an extra 230 seats.

Air New Zealand will also operate two more A320 services from Wellington to Dunedin, one on Sunday night, subject to air traffic control, and one on Monday morning, to help fans get home again. All seats on all three services will be sold at a flat rate of $219 each.



Chief marketing and customer officer Mike Tod said the airline had been working hard to come up with flight options for enthusiastic fans.



"This weekend is always a busy one for us as the school holidays get under way. With our domestic fleet fully committed, our only option was to think big, utilising a 767 from our international fleet to get hundreds more supporters to the game."



Tickets for Saturday's 767 service and Monday's A320 service will go on sale on Monday afternoon.

It seems the extra air tickets may sell out quickly: the Highlander's Facebook page features an event listing for "Landers Army - Invade the Capital", which has been joined by 890 people.

Event organisers have suggested an unofficial Highlanders supporters area, aiming for a sea of blue and yellow in Aisle 3 in the bronze section at the stadium's northern end.