The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled an advert on the TUI UK website to be misleading after the price went up more than £700 towards the end of the checkout process.
A complainant reported the ad, for a holiday at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, which was listed at £1,248.13 per person, and a total price of £2,496.26 for two. Text underneath pointed out ‘Price may update at checkout based on availability. Local taxes may apply’.
Further text in red said the price included a ‘£187.74 total discount’.
When the complainant – a journalist for a consumer-focused travel guide – went to the next stage of the process, the price appeared as ‘£1,608.44pp Total Price £3,216.88’. Further text stated “THE COST OF YOUR HOLIDAY HAS INCREASED.”
Further information followed, saying: “We’re sorry to say the price for your holiday has gone up by £722.62. It’s because this trip uses flights from a third party airline. We receive the latest prices from the airline a few times each day but, the price might change when we come to request the actual seats. Your new total is shown in the holiday summary.”
TUI said the holiday was priced dynamically and prices were controlled by suppliers. It said dynamic priced holidays were refreshed at least four times a day, while some flight components were updated hourly and others once a day.
It said that, as customers moved through the booking journey, the system checked the latest live prices, which meant the total could go down or up before booking.
TUI said it believed a fare filing issue with a particular airline had led to a discrepancy between the advertised price and the price shown at booking stage.
The ASA said consumers would understand the claims ‘£1248.13pp’ and ‘Total Price £2496.26’ on 2 July 2025 to be the actual price payable for the Caesars Palace Las Vegas holiday and that this was reinforced by the ‘Inc £187.74 Total Discount’ claim.
It said guidance on ‘Travel marketing: Working with third parties’ stated that marketers should take reasonable steps to reduce the likelihood of consumers being misled.
The ASA ruled the price claim and associated promotional savings claim were misleading and told TUI the ad should not appear again in the form complained of.
It told TUI to ensure advertised prices were based on genuine prices available to consumers and to reduce the likelihood of consumers being misled, including stating when prices were last updated.
