Travel companies Jet2Holidays and TUI have adverts banned for misleading claims

ADS for two travel companies have been banned for misleading consumers about holiday deals.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said an email from Jet2Holidays promising £100 off per person misled customers by not including all the information they needed to make an informed choice about whether or not they were making a meaningful saving.

The email promised £100 off per person on all holidays and city breaks on bookings made between January 14 and January 17.

Jet2Holidays said the “dynamic nature” of holiday pricing meant it was not possible to compare periods on a direct like-for-like basis, but provided figures which it said showed that 63% of their holidays were more than £100 cheaper than the pre-sale prices on January 13.

They attributed the cases where the discount had been eclipsed by an increase in the price over the period to dynamic pricing and the fact that prices tended to increase as the date of travel approached.

The ASA said: “We considered that consumers were generally aware that holiday pricing was fluid and that the price of a specific holiday could fluctuate over time, sometimes within the space of a day or less, based on a number of factors.

“In that context we considered that, despite having an appreciation of these price fluctuations, in the absence of further information about the basis of any savings claims made, consumers would be unable to have an informed understanding of whether or not the discounted price constituted a genuine, meaningful saving.”

It ruled that the ads must not appear again, adding: “We told Jet2Holidays not to make savings claims unless they were genuine and meaningful to consumers, and to ensure they included material information relating to the basis of the savings claim and correctly identified the period of sale in their marketing communications.”

In a separate ruling, the ASA found Tui discounts to be misleading for failing to make clear they were online prices compared with in-store prices.

Two websites, for Tui UK’s First Choice and Thomson brands, offered deals on hotels for a £162 and £180 per person discount in August.

Tui said an online discount was often applied immediately to reflect that it did not need to pay commission to travel agents for holidays sold via their websites.

Tui said the claimed discounts were fair, honest and not misleading because the ads indicated to the consumer that they would obtain a package holiday at the value of £1800 for a lesser price.

However, the ASA said the basis of the discount claims was not sufficiently clear in the ads and were therefore likely to mislead consumers about the nature of the saving on offer.

It said: “We told Tui UK, trading as Thomson and First Choice, to ensure that future ads referring to discounted prices made clear the basis of the price comparison, and that they held evidence to substantiate such savings claims.”