Go Fly Brought Down To Earth By ASA

The ongoing price war between low cost airlines generated a complaint to the ASA recently when BA’s Go Fly Ltd advertised flights to Nice in the national press with the headline “Going to Monaco for the Grand Prix? Don’t pay over the odds.”. A disc below stated “Nice from £65 rtn incl all taxes” and below this was the statement “highest fare over 40% less than Easyjet” while a footnote stated when this price comparison had been made.

An industry complaint was received from Easyjet which challenged whether the £65 flight was available on the Grand Prix weekend and the implication that Go’s flights were cheaper than its own.

The advertisers said that the £65 return fare was available for travel on 23 May, returning 28 May, and proved that while none of these returns had been bought, nearly forty people had bought singles for the 23 for half the price. However, the ASA noted that the Grand Prix took place on 27 May and that the price comparison in the footnote was based on travel to Nice on 25 May and return on the 28. The ASA upheld the complaint, saying that consumers could easily assume that the £65 offer applied to travel on the 25. It told Go to ensure that restrictions were made clear in future advertisements.

The advertisers defended their claim to be cheaper than Easyjet by pointing out that their highest return fare from Stansted to Nice between 25 and 28 May was £280, while the highest priced fare from Luton to Nice with Easyjet during that period was £487.90. The ASA considered that most readers would infer from the ad that it was not only the highest priced Easyjet flight being compared, but all their flights during that time, in which case the 40% lower claim was misleading. The complaint was again upheld.

ASA: 020 7580 5555 www.asa.org.uk

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