Advertising watchdog rules Air China ad was misleading
Air China has been told off by advertising watchdogs over a misleading Black Friday promotion.
An investigation followed a complaint about a banner on its website, www.airchina.co.uk, which said: "24-27 November Black Friday Sale … Fly to Asia and Oceania … 20% off."
The complainant, who understood the cost of some flights had not decreased by 20% and that others had increased during the sale, challenged whether the ‘20% off’ claim was misleading.
The complainant had compared the prices for return flights for certain periods before and during the Black Friday Sale promotions.
It was noted that the London to Chengdu flights were approximately £50 more expensive during the Black Friday Sale and the London to Guangzhou flights were approximately £10 cheaper during the Sale.
In its defence, Air China said it ran promotional sales on many popular routes from time to time and passengers could enjoy those affordable fares that were not available at other times.
But it said seats were subject to availability, and passengers were encouraged to start searching early to find best possible fares.
It said some ‘blackout’ periods during which the 20% discount deal was not applicable and provided a screenshot of a dedicated web page on its website for the Black Friday Sale, which set out the terms and conditions.
The Advertising Standards Authority said it considered the claim ’24-27 November Black Friday Sale … Fly to Asia and Oceania … 20% off’ to be an absolute claim.
"Because of consumers’ likely interpretation of the claim as set out above, we would expect to see documentary evidence, such as pricing history for each of the flights, to demonstrate that consumers would achieve genuine and meaningful savings of 20% discount for all flight tickets to the destinations referred to in the claim during the Black Friday Sale. We had not been provided with such evidence," it said.
It also noted that the banner did not indicate any terms and conditions, which should be made clear before consumers input details of flights into the search facilities on the homepage.
"Because Air China had not provided evidence to demonstrate that consumers would achieve genuine and meaningful savings of 20% for all flights to Asia and Oceana purchased during the Black Friday Sale, and that significant conditions of the offer, such as excluded travel dates, had not been made sufficiently clear, we concluded that the ad was misleading," it said in a report published today.
It told Air China the ad must not appear again in the same form and to ensure that significant conditions to similar discount promotions, such as excluded travel dates, were made sufficiently clear in the ads.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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