Ad description

Two travel websites, seen on 22 August 2011, quoted £306 as the cost of a return flight from Heathrow to Dhaka between 22 November (2011) and 28 January (2012).

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the quoted price was genuine because she had been unable to obtain the flights at that price.

Response

Travel Up Ltd (Travel Up) stated the prices listed on dearflight and robinflight websites were genuinely available from the listed airlines but that the availability of flights at all prices was not fixed and fluctuated from hour to hour. They stated that seats were held and released frequently by travel agents and airlines alike and that prices would always remain valid unless withdrawn by the airline, which led to those prices being immediately removed from the dearflight and robinflight websites. They stated that whether a seat could be purchased at the advertised price on the desired travel date at a particular time was something separate and should be taken into account when considering a database of flight prices. They stated that, as a travel agent, they had very little control over availability of seats compared to the airlines themselves and that seats were held and released frequently.

They stated that although all of the advertised prices were valid, there were instances under which seats were not available at the listed time or date of travel desired by the customers and that, conversely, flights were available at the quoted price, but on a different time or on a different date.

They stated that the website was a general database of prices at which flights were available but not an absolute display of available prices and, that consumers should use it as a research database of the best fares for a given range of dates before checking availability with Travel Up and then making a booking. They stated that this was made clear in a disclaimer at the bottom of the database results page which stated "1. Please contact us to check the availability and book the seat for the selected flight and fare. 2. Due to the limited number of seats for a particular fare on a given dates [sic], a higher fare can be offered when the seats become sold out for those particular flights and dates or an alternative flight or dates will be given as per the flights availability status. 3. Fares displayed or fare selected on the website is not a display of AVAILABLE flights but is a DataBase of prices and should be used for researching the best fares for a given date of ranges. The website fare Database does not guarantee the seat available for the flight selected on the given dates. Due to the unavailability of the seats for a particular date, the fare cannot be removed as the seat availability situation changes every now and then due to cancellations etc. 5. Please reconfirm the fare and the airport taxes, before going ahead with any financial agreement, as airport taxes varies [sic] from airline to airline and destination to destination".

They re-iterated that the prices quoted were taken from genuinely available flights, subject to complex availabilities, and provided an example of the currently available prices from London to Dhaka which matched the price quoted when the complainant first searched the database but where they acknowledged this related to a different travel period. They stated that they could not provide evidence of the availability of the price seen by the complainant for their particular travel period because this information was no longer available.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted the website contained a large amount of information and acted as a database of the prices the various airlines offered for the searchable destinations. We also noted Travel Up was a travel agency and as such had no control over the fluctuation in prices and availability and that this was explained in the disclaimer. We also understood that consumers could not book flights through the website itself and that they were required to call robinflights or dearflights to check availability and prices before then booking. We noted Travel Up had demonstrated that flights were currently available from London to Dhaka at the price originally found on the database ad in August 2011 but also noted this was for a different travel period from that which had originally been searched for. We also noted Travel Up had demonstrated that the current prices on robinflights/dearflights for the same journey, but through different airlines from the one searched by the complainant, matched those detailed on the website and available through Travel Up.

However, we noted the dearflights and robinflights websites had specifically quoted the £306 price for the Heathrow to Dhaka flight for return flights on specified dates and noted Travel Up had not provided evidence to demonstrate that those flights were available from the referenced airline(s) to and from those destinations on dates requested by the complainant at the stated price. Because the complainant had been unable to obtain flights to Dhaka during the period advertised, at the price shown, and because Travel Up had been unable to provide evidence that the airline supplying the data had sold flights at that price, we concluded that the claim was misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules  3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.  (Misleading advertising),  3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation.  (Substantiation) and  3.17 3.17 Price statements must not mislead by omission, undue emphasis or distortion. They must relate to the product featured in the marketing communication.  (Prices).

Action

The ad should not appear again in its current form. We told Travel Up to ensure that they held evidence to demonstrate that price claims were genuine.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

3.1     3.17     3.7    


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