Tigerair Doing a Dodgy on Their 20% off Sale by Falsely Claiming Flight is "Not Available"?

inherentchoice on 10/02/2016 - 12:56
Last edited 10/02/2016 - 13:09

Been checking the price on a certain Tigerair flight for several months hoping it will come down.

The evening flight I want has been $65 but now they have a 20% off sale for travel in April it's suddenly "NOT AVAILABLE" and they want me to buy the earlier flights for $76 after the 20% discount.

But I'll bet when the sale is over it will suddenly be available at $65 again.

  • Is Tigerair legally allowed to do this? Is it a type of bait and switch?
  • Is there any way I can force them to make the flight available again and get 20% off the $65 fare they had it at before the sale?
  • Isn't this what eBay retailers did all the time with their % off promotions by making things out of stock during the sale?

Edit: On second thoughts it looks like they have actually done a schedule change and added an extra flight that day, and now the evening flight is a bit earlier than it was. So maybe it's something to do with that and it's just the cynic in me and I'm wrong. But adding an extra flight would actually increase the number of seats instead of making flights "not available".

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Comments

  • ESEMCE on 10/02/2016 - 13:07

    It's not a Bait and Switch until they have your money and then tell you it's not available but you can have this for $y extra.
    Refusing sale is not Bait and Switch.

    They're essentially allowed to do what they want. They can say they've sold out of sale price fares on the flight you want.
    Maybe that flight sold out completely before the sale or because of the sale before you tried.

    • inherentchoice on 10/02/2016 - 13:11
      +2

      The sale was only announced on their Facebook 20 minutes ago.

      They have baited us with 20% off but with the intention of only giving us 20% off on the more expensive flights. I'm wanting 20% off $65 but they're trying to get me to pay $76 instead.

      bait-and-switch
      noun
      the action (generally illegal) of advertising goods which are an apparent bargain, with the intention of substituting inferior or more expensive goods.

  • miarn on 10/02/2016 - 13:27
    +2

    If they claim the cheaper flight is not available during the sale, when it actually is, then that is misleading or deceptive conduct.

    Screenshot everything now, then after the sale if the flight mysteriously reappears at $65, call Tiger and ask them what's going on. If you don't get a satisfactory answer, lodge a complaint with ACCC.

    • inherentchoice on 10/02/2016 - 18:57

      Hey thanks for your reply. Funnily enough the flights are now available so I bought it now. Who knows though, maybe they read your comment and did a backflip.

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