The advertising watchdog found that lead-in fares advertised on Cheapflights.co.uk in September last year were extremely limited and sometimes not even available by the time they were advertised.

Cheapflights.co.uk was investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) following a complaint by a customer who was told that flights from London to Colombia, advertised at prices from £474 to £626, were not available at those prices when he wanted to book.

In its defence, Cheapflights said most advertised flights had departure date restrictions and it was therefore possible the complainant had misunderstood the date restrictions stated for each flight. It said its website also clearly stated that the flights were subject to availability. 

However, the ASA said Cheapflights and its partners must make it clear to customers when fares are extremely limited. It said it was insufficient for Cheapflights to tell customers they needed to 'check with the advertiser at the time of booking'.

A response to ASA announcement
Cheapflights would like to make a statement with regards to a Notification we received from the ASA on 30 November 2011 concerning a single complaint about availability of prices for advertisements by Travel Up Ltd t/a Bargain Flight Desk; Polani Travel Ltd t/a ComeFli; Sea Breeze Holidays t/a FlightHouseUK.com for flights prices to Bogota and Cali on 21 and 22 September 2011.  This has resulted in a complaint by a member of the public to the ASA being upheld on 4 January.

Statement points:

• The prices under scrutiny were obtained by the advertisers under Air Line Contracts which supply “date Range” fares which are open for a specific period subject to availability on dates within that date range. Text above the listed ads stated: “Prices updated DAILY and are subject to availability. Check with the advertiser at the time of booking”.
• Cheapflights Media has been a consumer flight price “champion” since 1996 and has always co-operated closely with both the ASA and the OFT to improve the online advertising environment for consumers.
• Our UK site gets up to three million visits a month and we regret that this incident has occurred particularly since the wording used about availability on deals at the time of the complaint had previously been implemented following correspondence with the ASA earlier last year.
• As a result of this complaint we have again been consulting with the ASA and have taken appropriate action to improve messaging about the prices published by our advertisers on our site. We have also reminded our advertisers about the need to ensure that their deal prices and availability are accurate and updated regularly and that their own sites’ wording meets ASA standards.
• The quality of our deals is very important to us and we believe we have genuinely cheap deals. We are always looking for ways to improve our service and make the hard-to-find deals easier to locate. Unfortunately, it is the nature of our industry that the best flight deals can be very limited in availability and, in some cases, sell out.
• It was unfortunate that the consumer did not contact us directly for help, as, by the time we heard of this through the ASA, it was not possible to investigate properly or help the consumer. We welcome feedback on the accuracy of our deals and work swiftly to give feedback. We have a three strikes and off-the-site policy for any advertisers that display inaccurate fares.