"Number of seats left" advert on flight

System

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Airlines will rarely incrase the size of an plane on a particular route, and certainly not repeatedly by 2-4 seats at a time. And if you think complaining about false advertising is a waste of time, then presumably you're happy to get misled - and it really begs the question as to why you're on a consumer rights forum in the first place.

roses, I absolutely would complain to the OFT. If ThomsonFly are claming to only have x seats left, when in fact they have more, it's an outright lie and they should be held to account for it. True, there may be other unknown factors involved such as cancellations, but in this case Thomson will have nothing to fear.

Thomson fly don't run like a normal airline do, their flights are chartered therefore they can change the plane dependent on demand.

I imagine in this scenario a certain selection of seats were reserved for package holidays. These were not taken up and so the seats were released to general sale.

There is a difference between standing up for consumer rights and just making a petty complaint because you've got nothing better to do

roses

If they are going to release more seats, then surely they are legally obliged to state this rather than write "only XXX seats left!" which is what they have done ie they are stating the plane only has XXX seats left then it will be fully booked.

ThumbRemote

goater78 wrote: »

Thomson fly don't run like a normal airline do, their flights are chartered therefore they can change the plane dependent on demand.

Thomson fly are not chartered. They use their own planes. And what charter company would have a load of spare planes - with a couple of extra seats on each one - just sitting around waiting?

And to only release a couple of seats at a time, to conveniently keep the number of seats available low, is disingenuous at best.

System

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Thomson fly are not chartered. They use their own planes.

And what charter company would have a load of spare planes - with a couple of extra seats on each one - just sitting around waiting?

There is no point arguing with you as you have no idea what you are talking about. Thomson fly is the biggest Chartered airline in the world! You're basically an idiot.

roses

Meow!!

I agree completely with ThumbRemote and I will definitely be complaning about false advertising.

If Apple stuck a huge sign in their Regent Street shop window "only 5 iphones left" then the following week, they stuck a sign in the window stating "only 10 iphones left" AND they reduced the price, there would be hell to pay and it will be all over the paper. This is no different.

System

roses wrote: »

Meow!!

I agree completely with ThumbRemote and I will definitely be complaning about false advertising.

If Apple stuck a huge sign in their Regent Street shop window "only 5 iphones left" then the following week, they stuck a sign in the window stating "only 10 iphones left" AND they reduced the price, there would be hell to pay and it will be all over the paper. This is no different.

No because in the week they may have received a delivery providing the store with more Iphones.

fluffnutter

I think it would be difficult to prove that these seats were falsely advertised. If they were it's sharp practice indeed. Having said that it's long been a trick of the retail industry to drum up a bit of panic buying "Only six left in stock! Order now!", "Just 25 places left! Book now to avoid disappointment!" and it's up to the savvy consumer to read between the lines.

However, if they're deliberately creating false demand to increase prices then they should be investigated. Proving this would be nigh-on impossible I suspect.

bod1467

peachyprice wrote: »

Did you read this before wading in:

Obviously not - check the time stamps.

unholyangel

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Thomson fly are not chartered. They use their own planes. And what charter company would have a load of spare planes - with a couple of extra seats on each one - just sitting around waiting?

And to only release a couple of seats at a time, to conveniently keep the number of seats available low, is disingenuous at best.

Yes, they are a chartered airline. As are Thomas Cook etc. As opposed to scheduled airlines (like British Airways, Virgin, Emirates). Chartered airlines have a 3 letter code (like TCX for Thomas Cook) while scheduled have 2 (BA for British Airways, KL for KLM etc)

There are many reasons that seat availibility and prices may change. Travel Agents can (or at least we used to be able to) go in to the system and reserve seats. When you do this, it removes them from sale. They only go back onto sale either a) when the time limit is up and the agent doesnt reserve them again or b) the reservation is removed.

The pricing system can vary company to company (and certainly from scheduled to chartered). But there are often several price bands - even for the same seats (as opposed to business vs economy). The different price can either depend on departure date vs booking date or can just simply be grouped off so that so many seats are in price band A, so many in B, so many in C and so forth. Its also possible they have allocated a number to another travel agent, the agent hasnt sold them so they have been returned for open sale.

OP at the end of the day, are you happy with your booking? Do you want to cancel it? If you dont want to cancel it then effectively you kind of did need to book. Just as a few seats have become available, seats couldve sold out. If you werent happy with the price, you shouldnt have booked.

TIP: Once you've bought something, dont keep looking at its price as in most cases, the price will invariably go down and you'll feel cheated even though you were previously happy with the price you paid.

arcon5

roses wrote: »

Meow!!

I agree completely with ThumbRemote and I will definitely be complaning about false advertising.

If Apple stuck a huge sign in their Regent Street shop window "only 5 iphones left" then the following week, they stuck a sign in the window stating "only 10 iphones left" AND they reduced the price, there would be hell to pay and it will be all over the paper. This is no different.

now there's a surprise

even if this was deliberate, how does it majorly affect you out of curiosity? a holiday/flights are not an impulse purchase so surely you was happy with the price & product anyway?