ASA Adjudication on bmibaby Ltd

Ad

An internet sales promotion offered "up to 40% off all flights" with bmibaby. Smaller text underneath stated "offer ends midnight Tuesday". Even smaller text underneath stated "travel from April to July, all prices one way incl. taxes and charges".

Issue

The complainant, who had followed the Rome to Birmingham flight price in the pre-sale period when the price was falling, objected that the ad was misleading. He said, during the sale period, the price rose compared to its price in the pre-sale period and he believed therefore that there was no 40% reduction.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

bmibaby Ltd (bmibaby) said the offer applied to flights from Birmingham, Cardiff, East Midlands and Manchester only. They said they had offered up to 40% off all routes from those airports with at least 10% availability under the offer. They said the Terms and Conditions of the offer, which customers could click through to from the ad, were clear about the departure airports included in the promotion. They said the complainant's intended flight may have been subject to a discount, depending on the dates they had attempted to book, but pointed out the complainant was trying to book a flight from Rome to Birmingham, which was outside the terms of the offer.

Assessment

Upheld

We noted the ad stated "up to 40% off all flights". We considered that, because the offer only applied to flights from Birmingham, Cardiff, East Midlands and Manchester, the claim was likely to mislead. We were further concerned that the significant limitation to the offer was not stated prominently in the ad.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness), 16.1 (Availability of products) and 27.4 (Sales promotions) and 30.1 (Sales promotions: availability).

Action

The ad should not be shown again in its current form. We reminded bmibaby to ensure significant conditions likely to affect consumers' understanding of an offer were stated prominently in future. We advised them to consult the CAP Copy Advice team before running future promotions.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)