Easyjet rebuked over ‘misleading’ £5.99 cabin bag deal
Easyjet has been warned by the advertising watchdog over a “misleading” tab on its website which suggested that passengers could get a large cabin bag ‘from £5.99’.
The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) said it had not seen “sufficient evidence” that it was possible to book large cabin bags at this price across a range of flight routes and dates.
The claim appeared under the airline’s ‘fees and charges’ page, prompting a complaint from consumer protection group Which?, who argued that the claim could not be substantiated.
Research from Which? found that the price for a cabin bag was higher than £5.99 on all 520 flights it analysed. The average price was £30, and the lowest was £23.49.
Easyjet insisted that large cabin bags could be purchased from £5.99, but admitted prices varied depending on availability, demand, and operational costs.The tab was only there to inform customers that £5.99 was the starting price, and was not linked to a promotional sale, it said.
But the ASA said it had been unable to make an assessment of the proportion of large cabin bags that could be booked at the advertised price.
Easyjet insists £5.99 cabin bags available
“Whilst we acknowledged easyJet’s assurance that large cabin bags could be purchased for £5.99, we considered that alone was insufficient to substantiate the ‘from’ pricing claim,” the ASA said.
“We told Easyjet Airline to ensure when using ‘from’ price claims in the future that large cabin bags were available at the advertised price across a significant proportion of flights.”
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.”