EasyJet has been banned from claiming in its marketing that the cost of adding a large cabin bag to a flight booking is “from £5.99”, after the advertising watchdog found the price was “misleading”.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said there was “insufficient evidence” that the price was widely available.
The ASA banned the airline from using the phrase, and said in future it must ensure that the lowest “from” price for large cabin bags is available “across a significant proportion of flights”.
In response, easyJet told the regulator the advertised price was available across a range of routes but prices varied depending on availability, demand and operational costs.
The airline added that the price for a particular booking was clearly displayed before purchase to ensure transparency.
Large cabin bags are designed to fit in overhead lockers on planes, with most budget airlines charging passengers extra to bring a bag of that size.
The ASA ruling followed an investigation by consumer group Which? – that found the price for adding a large cabin bag was more than £5.99 on all 520 easyJet flights analysed.
The lowest price identified was £23.49 and the average was £30.
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Rory Boland, editor of magazine Which? Travel, said: “It’s frankly astonishing that airlines think they can ignore the rules and mislead customers with unattainable prices, so it’s absolutely right that the ASA has made this ruling against easyJet as a result of our complaint.
“Our recent investigation found that there is a culture of airlines using low headline fares – then charging exorbitant prices on top to take a standard cabin bag.
“The easyJet cabin bag prices we collected were typically five times as much as the ‘from £5.99’ it claimed.
“When booking a trip, customers should consider choosing an airline without cabin bag add-ons as it may work out cheaper.”
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In response to the finding, easyJet said: “We always aim to provide clear information to our customers on pricing, and the purpose of this page was to display factual information on fees and charges to customers.
“We always have some large cabin bags available for the lowest price.
“In light of the ASA’s feedback we have made some changes to the page to ensure the information is as clear as possible for consumers.”
