Ad description
A website for Southall Travel, www.southalltravel.co.uk, seen on 3 December 2017, stated “Air France Flight Deals Special Offer Economy fr £222, Business fr £749, First fr £2941”.
Issue
The complainant, who was informed that the advertised economy fare was not available after they called Southall Travel to book the return flight, challenged whether the price claim “fr £222” was misleading.
Response
Southall Travel Ltd provided screenshots of 55 return Air France flights priced at £222 or lower and said the prices were valid at the time the ad was seen. They stated that the offer started in late 2017 and had ended in early 2018. They said that all flight prices and availability emanated from Air France. They said that they were satisfied that advertising the prices as “from £222” was not misleading to consumers because it was described as a “special offer” and as a “from” price, and a large and significant number of flights were available at or below that “from” price. They explained that it was not the case that in order to get the advertised price you had to travel in one seat on a Monday in February as there were a large number of seats available.
Assessment
Upheld
The promotion did not include any qualifications to indicate that the offer was subject to availability, nor did it set out any qualifications as to which flights the fare applied to, for example the applicable travel period or the destinations consumers could fly to (or from) for the advertised price. The ASA considered that in that context consumers would understand the claim “Economy fr £222”, to mean that a reasonable quantity of Air France economy flights available through Southall Travel would be priced at £222 and that there would not be any restrictions such as travel dates and destinations for those flights in the absence of information that stated otherwise.
We understood from the information provided by the advertiser that the offer did not apply to all destinations and travel dates. Although the advertiser provided evidence to show that a number of flights were available at or below the “from” price of £222, we considered that the ad breached the Code because it did not state the applicable conditions and qualifications which applied to the offer.
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), 3.9 3.9 Marketing communications must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify. (Qualification), 3.22 3.22 Price claims such as "up to" and "from" must not exaggerate the availability or amount of benefits likely to be obtained by the consumer. (Pricing) and 8.17 8.17 All marketing communications or other material referring to promotions must communicate all applicable significant conditions or information where the omission of such conditions or information is likely to mislead. Significant conditions or information may, depending on the circumstances, include: (Significant conditions for promotions).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Southall Travel Ltd to ensure that significant limitations and qualifications for promotional offers, including restrictions on travel dates and destinations, were clearly stated in future ads.
