The advertising watchdog has banned a travel company from claiming to offer ‘100% money protection’ through the Travel Trust Association.
The Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint against Heathrow-based Emaan Travel, trading as Cheap Flights Corner, after it advertised financial protection via the TTA on its website.
The ASA said: “We had not seen any evidence that Cheap Flights Corner were a member of the TTA and when their name was entered on the relevant ‘Verify TTA Member’ page of the TTA website they were not listed.
“We therefore concluded that the references to the TTA and 100% financial protection were misleading.”
The ASA added: “The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Emaan Travel not to state or imply that they were members of the TTA, or that they offered 100% financial protection on that basis.”
The ruling was made after Emaan Travel failed to respond to the ASA’S enquiries.
Gary Lewis, group managing director of The Travel Network Group, said: “We can confirm that Emaan Travel, trading as Cheap Flights Travel, is not, or has ever been, a Member of the TTA.
“Because the TTA has a unique offering of providing 100% financial protection regretfully, from time to time, we do come up against agents advertising themselves as members when they are not. Therefore we are delighted that the ASA has made this ruling. ”