The Advertising Standards Authority upheld two complaints for flight offers which used the phrase: ‘extremely limited, subject to availability’. Two complainants, both told the flights were not available at the advertised price, challenged whether the prices were misleading and could be substantiated.
The agency told the ASA that airlines ‘constantly altered prices’ and that its systems kept rates up to date. Southall Travel argued that the original rates were lower than the lead-in of £346 advertised ‘and therefore they believed that the advertised price was achievable’.
The agency provided the ASA with screenshots of the airline uploads and invoices for flights booked at less than the advertised prices for dates near to those the complainants had attempted to book. Southall Travel said the ads had stated that the flights were ‘from’ the quoted price and were subject to availability and extremely limited.
Despite acknowledging that prices were ‘from’ the rates quoted and ‘were subject to availability’, the ASA ruled against the agency.
It said: “We considered that Southall Travel should have taken reasonable steps to reduce the likelihood of consumers being misled and to make them aware that the advertised price might have changed and what steps they needed to take to find the most up-to-date price.’
It added: ‘We considered that Southall Travel had not been able to demonstrate that the quoted prices were based on a genuine price available when the prices were last updated or how frequently they were updated.
’We concluded that, because the ads did not make sufficiently clear that the quoted prices were subject to change and that they referred to the price at the last update, when that update took place or how consumers could find the most up-to-date price, the ads were misleading.’
