False Advertising?

[babs135]

When is false advertising not false?  Just received an email from a travel agency we've used before advertising a no-fly cruise for £299 pp. Clicked on the link and the cruise in question is shown as from £449 pp!!   Surely  this can't be right? 

[Harry Peterson]

19 minutes ago, babs135 said:

When is false advertising not false?  Just received an email from a travel agency we've used before advertising a no-fly cruise for £299 pp. Clicked on the link and the cruise in question is shown as from £449 pp!!   Surely  this can't be right? 

Almost certainly they’ll claim, rightly or wrongly, that the availability was there, but you missed it.

 

It would be very difficult to prove otherwise, unless there’s an evidenced pattern, but there is legislation aimed at stopping bait and switch selling.

 

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1277/schedule/1/made

Paragraphs 5 and 6 are relevant, but not easy to establish.

[John Bull]

What type of cabins are £449 ?

And are there any inside cabins available?

Could be bait & switch, or could genuinely be that the webite is nore up-to-date than their e-mails.

 

JB 🙂

 

[babs135]

John, since I posted earlier I've done a bit more digging.  It's the  Carnival Pride out of Dover to Norway 9 nights in June.  The agency is £449 pp for an inside cabin so I went to another online agency and found it for an inside cabin from £379 pp. Finally I went to Carnival website where it is advertised as from $754 (£602) pp for an inside cabin.  At £379 pp for 9 nights it's a good price.

Just rereading the original flyer of £449 - they are offering either a hotel the night before sailing or car parking which could be why the price differs from the £299?

Not sure if we'll pursue it as we've got a cruise booked for the end of july. I was just curious.

[babs135]

23 hours ago, John Bull said:

What type of cabins are £449 ?

And are there any inside cabins available?

Could be bait & switch, or could genuinely be that the webite is nore up-to-date than their e-mails.

 

JB 🙂

 

 

16 hours ago, babs135 said:

John, since I posted earlier I've done a bit more digging.  It's the  Carnival Pride out of Dover to Norway 9 nights in June.  The agency is £449 pp for an inside cabin so I went to another online agency and found it for an inside cabin from £379 pp. Finally I went to Carnival website where it is advertised as from $754 (£602) pp for an inside cabin.  At £379 pp for 9 nights it's a good price.

Just rereading the original flyer of £449 - they are offering either a hotel the night before sailing or car parking which could be why the price differs from the £299?

Not sure if we'll pursue it as we've got a cruise booked for the end of july. I was just curious.

Because I had the time I went to a few more online agents and the price is all over the place. If nothing else, it proves that before you book anything do a search across all agencies !!!