ADVERTISED PRICE VERSUS ACTUAL PRICE

[SATCO]

I'm sure this has been answered before but I've looked down the threads and can't readily see it, so I'm asking again with due apologies for any duplication.

I'm looking for a flight MAN-BKK 26DEC to 24FEB. I find a website which shows a good enough option in terms of connex times etc, and it's advertised at 548GBP. It says to ring to book. I ring. When I put the details to the operator he says "cheapest we can do that route, those dates, is 671GBP." I tell him it's ADVERTISED at 548. He says "those seats have gone." The ACTUAL price is now 671. I tell him it's mis-selling because what's advertised isn't the actual price. I ask him about this and he says "the PRICE is available, but there are no SEATS available."

To me this is still mis-selling or mis-advertising at the very least.

Can someone please tell me what the deal is here? Why/how can a ticket seller advertise one price yet say it's something completely different when I ring to book?

Thanks

[Hotel Tango]

Because those prices are probably still available but no longer on the dates you want to travel. It´s the old "prices start from" thing which you find everywhere, not just airlines.

[SATCO]

Thanks for the reply; the trouble is that the website search says the flight price of 548 is the price ON THE DATES selected; it's only when I phone them to book it (which is what the website says to do; there's no option to book online), that the bloke says the price is now 671. Which means the 548 is defunct and shouldn't be displayed for the dates I entered.

[radeng]

Try printing off the website charge so you have evidence and complain to your local Trading Standards Officer.

[farci]

I'm not a lawyer but I believe there is a difference between advertising a price and a binding offer.

The advertisement is an 'invitation to treat' defined here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invitation_to_treat) as:
'...an expression of willingness to negotiate. A person making an invitation to treat does not intend to be bound as soon as it is accepted by the person to whom the statement is addressed...'

The type of website which you phone usually disappoints IMHO. It relies on the fact that they have got your attention and may get a sale anyway. I prefer to use Skyscanner (http://www.skyscanner.net) or Dohop. (http://www.dohop.com)

Even then, the airline computer which generated the quote can refuse if the fare bucket has been sold out in the meantime. I don't think Trading Standards will be very sympathetic

[ExXB]

Aviation is a price-based business. People are attracted by price and retailers know that to get your attention they have to offer low prices.

I suspect that you can find a trip for £548 but obviously not for the dates you've selected. Somewhere or other there has got to be some small print that says something along the lines of "fares may not be available on all flights and seats are limited."

Trading Standards may be able to encourage the retailer to improve their language if it's not legal/clear - but they will not force them to sell you a ticket for £548.

If you are unhappy then go elsewhere.

[PAXboy]

There is a well known budget hotel chain the UK that use the colour purple. I have stayed at various hotels of theirs over the last five years - typically six nights a year in various towns.

They continually advertise rooms from £29 per night. I have never paid less than £50 per night for the nights and locations I want.

They are an excellant company and I heartily reccomend them.

[Hipennine]

However, Paboy, when you book that "purple" hotel, the website gives you the price for the night when you put in the dates, and holds that price until you complete the booking. the price doesn't change during the booking process, which is what the OIP seems to be saying.

And although in English contract law, there is the general principle of "invitation to treat", there is additionally specific consumer legislation regarding advertised prices in retail operations which over-ride this. If you go into your local supermarket and pick up a tin of beans priced at 10p, but the electronic check-out charges you 12p, the supermarket is in breach.

[TSR2]

If you go into your local supermarket and pick up a tin of beans priced at 10p, but the electronic check-out charges you 12p, the supermarket is in breach.


This very subject was the point of discussion on local radio recently. The local Trading Standards Officer made it quite clear that the price you are contracting to is the price at the till. That is the point at which you are accepting the price and therefore making a contract to purchase.

[radeng]

So you are perfectly entitled to have trolley full of shopping, find that the price at the till is not for each item the price at the shelf and walk away leaving them with a full trolley to restack? Some of them now being frozen goods that they cannot re freeze.....

I'd still get TSO involved, just try to cause the bast**ds trouble.

When I found at my local Tesco that the shelf price on Famous Grouse didn't match the till price, they very rapidly adjusted the till price for me. However, at the moment, 1 litre of Famous Grouse is £17-00 (saving of £7-50). 70 cL is £17-50. Make sense of that if you can................I bought all the 1L bottles they had on Saturday.

Hic!

[PAXboy]

Hipennine. Sure, I just don't believe ANY advertisement or website! I was trying some sample bookings today for a holiday that might see me compelled to use a certain well known airline (:rolleyes:) and found that - if you select a 15Kg suitcase on the outbound leg it costs £20 to take it out but £35 to bring it BACK!!! (20kg is £30 + £45) You have to admire them. :eek:

radeng. Delighted to hear that you have more whiskey time in your life and will measure your posts from here on accordingly. :ok:

[Hipennine]

TSR2

However, the supermarket in such a case has advertised a product in a consumer context, without any conditionality on the offer, at the price shown on the fixture, and possibly the tin, and is therefore in breach of the appropriate legislation. so they are banged to rights anyway !

[Sunnyjohn]

They continually advertise rooms from £29 per night. I have never paid less than £50 per night for the nights and locations I want.
Sorry abou that PAXboy. We use the same hotel chain.My wife books well ahead and during off-season periods and we do get the £29. They are a business and are still in business because they do it well. We have always had excellent service. You said it yourself when you highlighted the 'from'. I appreciate that you may well be in the situation where you are not able to book ahead, do have to use them at peak season, and maybe need to stay in a large city. You must expect to pay more. Your loss is our gain. :)

[The SSK]

According to EU Regulation 1008/08:

Article 23

Information and non-discrimination

1. Air fares and air rates available to the general public shall include the applicable conditions when offered or published in any form, including on the Internet, for air services from an airport located in the territory of a Member State to which the Treaty applies. The final price to be paid shall at all times be indicated and shall include the applicable air fare or air rate as well as all applicable taxes, and charges, surcharges and fees which are unavoidable and foreseeable at the time of publication.

[PAXboy]

No worries, Sunnyjohn. I do tend to book short notice and I never expect to get £29! If I think they are too expensive - I shop around. For a stop in the London Hammersmith area last Friday, I checked four places and they were still the cheapest.

I've just finished booking flights for a trip to Fuerteventura with friends in late May. Going out with FR and back with EZ made interesting comparisons, particularly as I was checking over a couple of days prior to agreeing dates and accomodation. Both sites have 'gotchas' but they use them differently. I have no arguments with that as I wait to look at the final amount before deciding.

The one to realy watch out for - on MANY web sites - is that: If they 'send you back' because you have not ticked a particular box, they may have reset some of the boxes that you had declined to the opposite of what you intended.

That's the 21st Century. :ugh: