The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that an advert published by Bmi misled customers and breached a number of advertising codes.
The advert, which appeared on Bmi’s website in November, was promoting a loyalty scheme deal offering double destination miles on flights between London Heathrow and Berlin or Vienna.
The advert was “misleading” as it included fares that were ineligible for the offer, breaking at least five advertising industry codes, the ASA found.
The body has advised Bmi to “take greater care when including pricing information in similar, future promotions”.
A spokeswoman for Bmi said the airline had accepted the ruling and subsequently amended the campaign.
“Our adverts for Berlin and Vienna were very successful and produced a great response from travellers,” said the Bmi spokeswoman.
“We will continue to produce adverts that get the message across clearly about the quality of our services."
Michael Smith, a loyalty scheme expert and managing partner at Airline Information, said Bmi had made a “schoolboy error”.
He said the deal was too complicated and should have been kept as simple as possible.
Bmi “should have got it right,” said Smith.
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