ASA Adjudication on The Airline Seat Company Ltd

Ad

A local press ad, for flights to Canada, included flights to Calgary and stated “fr £298 rtn inc taxes”. Small print stated "Flights based on Glasgow departures”.

Issue

A reader objected that ad was misleading, because when he rang to book a Calgary flight from Glasgow he was told that the £298 price only applied to Gatwick and Manchester departures.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

The Airline Seat Company Ltd said they did not have the system back-up to be able to demonstrate that 10% of their flights from Glasgow to Calgary were available at the advertised price at the time the ad appeared. They said they did not have a system which stored the number of seats available on each date. They said their prices fluctuated day by day. Although their lead prices were fixed at price point, the dates on which they might be available would change according to how seats were selling on each date of flight operation. They said, what started out as the lead-in price dates might, by the end of the weekend or after a few days, only be available on another set of dates.

They said they had no intention of misleading customers and were very careful to ensure they offered their lead-in prices when and where they stated.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA considered that marketing communications including a "from" fare should have a minimum of 10% of reservable seats available at that fare. We considered that it was an advertiser's responsibility to collect data in order demonstrate that 10% availability, if advertising "from" prices. Because The Airline Seat Company had not provided evidence to show at least 10% of their Glasgow to Calgary flights were available at the advertised "from" price at the time the complainant saw the ad, we concluded the claim was likely to mislead.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 and 7.2 (Misleading advertising) and 15.1 (Prices).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told The Airline Seat Company to ensure they could demonstrate at least 10% of flights were available at an advertised "from" price.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)