Thomson may be breaking law, Which? says

[Scunner]

The consumers' association Which? says the UK's largest travel firm could be breaking the law because of the way it promotes some deals. The BBC has found that Thomson, owned by TUI Travel, ran an advert suggesting only a few seats were left on a flight. It then released more seats that were offered at a much lower price.

Full story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14857967

[lynne]

I watched this on BBC this morning.  Quite interesting - but I do seem to recall when booking it frequently comes up with something along the lines of "hurry - only 3 seats left at this price" rather than only 3 seats left.  It sort of leads you to believe that you should book immediately because it implies that the next seats will be more expensive.....and then they are cheaper!

[hey jude]

quote:Originally posted by Scunner

The consumers' association Which? says the UK's largest travel firm could be breaking the law because of the way it promotes some deals. The BBC has found that Thomson, owned by TUI Travel, ran an advert suggesting only a few seats were left on a flight. It then released more seats that were offered at a much lower price.

Full story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14857967

Thomson uses this method all over their website, not just for flights.  If you look at package holidays or hotels, Thomson use the this ploy, "only 2 rooms left" etc.  As far as the flights go their explanation about the changing number of seats available is to do with 7 & 14 day holiday bookings and the release  of unsold holiday bookings from other agents.  This causes fluctuations in seat availability! And price! We had the exact same thing happen to us, booked seats in a hurry and then found a couple of days later that there were plenty still available and the price had gone down.  Very galling especially  being ex staff (him indoors)