More unclear advertising from Aer Lingus
I wrote here before about how Aer Lingus and Ryanair were resorting to advertising their flights as “% off” rather than with specific prices so they don’t fall foul of advertising complaints.
By being sufficiently hazy enough to advertise flights as 20% off instead of €40 or whatever, whenever anyone logs on to their websites they won’t know how much to expect to pay for their flights – despite the advertising saying that there’s a sale on.
Here’s another version of this dodgy advertising tactic from Aer Lingus that arrived in my inbox today:
€20 off? €20 off what? Off a €200 flight or a €50 flight? It’s all a bit shit really, and not very friendly for the consumer. Let the outrage begin 
3 Comments
sorry,but I had to comment. Read the email, it clearly says €20 off return flights to the destinations listed in the email.
Plus it is €20 off every seat etc for a defined time period. It generally helps if you actually read the email (even just the opening paragraph or two).
@jack – many thanks for your comment, but I did read the e-mail. I think you’re missing my point.
At different times in the past, I’ve bought flights with Aer Lingus to fly to European cities for €20 and €200.
If they’re offering me €20 off a flight, what am I getting the discount on? Will I be flying for free, or will I be flying for €180.
Hence the advertising is unclear.
When they say 20% off, how is a consumer to know if they are getting what was advertised. They don’t say what the original fare would be without the discount.
We are used to being ripped off by the Irish over the years, so this is just the latest in a long line of scams that the Irish airlines get away with doing.
What we need are strict rules that all EU airlines must be forced to include as mimimum in their adverts and mim levels of service
The EU commission only has the ability to create butter mountains and interfere where they are not needed.