Southall Travel has been ordered to ensure details of all flight offers are made clear in adverts.
The advertising watchdog today upheld a compliant against the company for promoting Air France flights from £222 which were found not to be available.
The Advertising Standards Authority ruled the advert, which appeared in December, as misleading.
“We told Southall Travel to ensure that significant limitations and qualifications for promotional offers, including restrictions on travel dates and destinations, were clearly stated in future ads,” the ASA said.
“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.
“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 [advertising] code because it did not state the applicable conditions and qualifications which applied to the offer.”
Southall Travel said all flight prices and availability had been provided by Air France and it was satisfied that advertising the prices as ‘from £222’ was not misleading to consumers because it was described as a ‘special offer’ and a “large and significant number” of flights were available at or below that price.
Separately, the ASA ruled against an advert from Sunshine.co.uk which failed to clarify the total cost of a Florida holiday including a resort fee and tourist tax.
“Because the ad did not make clear the total price of the hotel including the cost of the additional taxes and fees at the time of booking, we concluded that the ad was misleading,” the ASA ruled while upholding a complaint against the online firm for an adverting in February promoting the Grande Villas Resort.