ASA ruling against airline

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) have upheld a complaint against TUI.

The ad appeared on the TUI website and featured a holiday listing for Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas Hotel. The price appeared as “£1248.13pp” and “Total Price £2496.26”. The text below the prices stated that the price may update at checkout based on availability.

Upon proceeding to the next stage of the checkout process, a new price appeared: “£1608.44pp Total Price £3216.88”.  Additional text stated that “THE COST OF YOUR HOLIDAY HAS INCREASED. We’re sorry to say the price for your holiday has gone up by £722.62. It’s because this trip uses flights from a third-party [sic] airline. We receive the latest prices from the airline a few times each day, but the price might change when we come to request the actual seats. Your new total is shown in the holiday summary.”

The ASA upheld the complaint, ruling that consumers would interpret the claims “£1248.13pp” and “Total Price £2496.26” as the actual cost at viewing on 2 July 2025. They believed this impression was reinforced by the discount claim “Inc £187.74 Total Discount,” which suggested a static price saving. However, when the complainant tried to book online, the price increased over £700 due to flight cost changes from a third party. While travel prices can vary, marketers are required to be transparent about updates, which TUI failed to do. They should have indicated the last update date and used “from” prices for variable costs. Despite a note about potential checkout price changes, it wasn’t enough to prevent misleading impressions. TUI blamed a third-party flight provider for the increase but was responsible for ensuring accurate prices. The discount claim also lacked clarity, as the basis for calculations was unclear amid fluctuating prices.