WA Shearings Holidays Ltd t/a Shearings Holidays Miry Lane Wigan WN3 4AG Number of complaints: 1

Date: 23 July 2008 Media: National press Sector: Holidays and travel

Ad
A national press ad, for weekend trips from Manchester to Scotland, was headlined "FLY AWAY SCOTLAND'S NORTHERN JEWELS WEEKEND".  Text underneath stated "... 4 DAYS FROM ONLY £199 ... Flexible fares (ask for details) ...". Small print running horizontally up the side of the ad stated "Holidays ... are subject to availability and terms and conditions of Shearings Holidays Trading Charter ... Additional supplements may apply ...".

Issue
The complainant objected that the ad was misleading, because she was told that the lowest fare available was £225 and that she would also have to pay an obligatory flight supplement on top of that.

The CAP Code:

3.1;7.1;15.1;15.4

Response
Shearings Holidays (Shearings) said at the time the ad was sent to the newspaper for publication, it was possible to book the holiday at the advertised price. They said the flights used in the advertised package were with a low cost airline and that the flight prices could vary from day to day, which could have meant the flights were more expensive than £199 when the complainant contacted them. They said their ads stated Flexible Fares and "from" due to the pricing policy of low cost airlines. They asserted that the price a customer paid was sometimes lower than the advertised price but that sometimes it was higher due to the limited number of low priced seats on the airlines.

Shearings sent a printout of a booking form which showed that a customer had paid a total of £203 for the package. Shearings said their credit card handling fee was 2% of the total booking value and the customer had been charged approximately £3.00. They said that charge was incorporated into the prices displayed on the printout they had sent, however, customers also had the option of making payment by debit card or cheque which would have resulted in the overall cost being £199 per person. They said the lowest price they would expect to be able to sell the advertised holiday for was £139. They said, however, because no seats were available at that price when the customer booked, an adjustment of £64 per person was added. They said that their internal systems referred to that as a Flexible Fare Adjustment.

Shearings said it was possible for customers to book the holiday for the total of £199 advertised inclusive of all taxes and charges. They said, however, it was not possible for them to confirm the percentage of flights on sale that would have allowed the package price of £199. They said the low cost airlines they used varied their prices on a daily basis and, although availability and prices were checked when an ad was sent for publication, the number of seats available at the advertised price could have changed by the time the newspaper had been printed.

Shearings said they had recently agreed a deal with an airline which secured them an allocation of seats on the route advertised and allowed them to view full details of the availability of flights at the advertised price. They said that would allow them rather than the airline to control the availability of holidays at the advertised prices.

Shearings said it was not true that a supplement was always applied to their packages; they were unsure why the complainant had been told that was the case and apologised for the misunderstanding.

Assessment
Upheld
The ASA noted Shearings response. We noted the complainant had been given wrong information by Shearings staff and Shearings had confirmed that there was no obligatory flight supplement payable. We also noted, however, Shearings had stated that the price of flights changed quickly and that readers might not be able to take advantage of the advertised prices by the time the ad appeared. We were concerned that they were unable to provide details of the percentage of flights available which would have allowed the package price of £199. We considered that, to support the claim "4 DAYS FROM ONLY £199" Shearings would have to demonstrate that flights were available in sufficient quantities to ensure a reasonable prospect of readers obtaining the total package at a cost of £199. We considered that one booking form was not sufficient to show that and concluded that the ad was misleading.

We welcomed Shearings' assurance that new systems had been put in place to allow them to control the availability of their holidays in future.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness), 15.1 and 15.4 (Prices).

Action
We told Shearings to ensure there was a reasonable prospect of readers obtaining a holiday package at the advertised price in future.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)