ASA Adjudication on Flight Centre UK Ltd

Ad

A sponsored link, on Google, for flights to New York stated "Return flights to New York from only £195 incl all taxes".

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the ad was misleading, because he believed the flights had been unavailable at the minimum advertised price for at least two weeks at the time the ad appeared.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Flight Centre UK Ltd (Flight Centre) said the offer was available for travel with Kuwait Airways between 5th April 2008 and 31st May 2008. They submitted a copy of the airline contract, which they said showed the price and dates of that offer. Flight Centre explained that they had advertised the offer until 22nd May when there were still multiple dates available for travel at the £195 price.

Flight Centre said they always strove to ensure availability of their advertised fares, and removed prices from public view in the event that fares were no longer available. They explained that availability fluctuated throughout the sales period, and that they never guaranteed that a fare would be available for all travel dates during a set period. Flight Centre said the terms and conditions on all of their ads, both online and offline, made clear that prices were subject to availability. Flight Centre submitted documentation that detailed the availability of the fares during the offer.

Flight Centre said, between 30 March and 16th May 2008, more than 10% of the flights they sold to New York with Kuwait Airways were at the minimum advertised price of £195. They provided data in support of those figures.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted the information submitted by Flight Centre in support of the claim. We acknowledged that the ticket sales data showed that, between 30th March and 16th May, 83% of the tickets sold for flights to New York with Kuwait Airways were sold at the minimum advertised fare of £195. We also considered that the data showed that flights to New York were available at £195, and had been sold at that price, in the period before the complaint was made and for at least one month afterwards. We therefore concluded that the ad was not misleading, but reminded Flight Centre that they should make clear that seats at the quoted "from" price might be extremely limited.

We investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness), 15.1 (Prices) and 16.1 (Availability) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)