SWA Engaged in Deceptive Ads, Gets Fined..

DOT has ordered Southwest to cease and desist from future similar violations and assessed the carrier $200,000 in civil penalties.
In response to a consumer complaint, the Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings investigated Southwest’s “The Luv a Fare Sale,” which the carrier promoted in advertisements emailed to consumers on January 11, 2013. The email advertised one-way, nonstop fares “for $100 or less” for travel on February 14, 2013. However, the Enforcement Office’s investigation revealed that Southwest failed to have a reasonable number of seats available in a number of city-pair markets that were included in the fare sale. For example, in the ATL-LAS market only two percent of seats were made available at the sale fare and in the MSP-PHX market only one percent of the seats were available.
Further, on January 30, 2013, Southwest published a fare advertisement through its “DING!” application for $66 one-way fares from Dallas Love Field to Branson Airport in Missouri between March 1, 2013, and March 21, 2013. However, there were no seats available at the sale fare on any day during the sale period. Specifically, Southwest’s service between DAL and BKG did not commence until March 9, 2013, and there were no fares available for $66 from March 9 through March 21.By advertising fares for which a reasonable number of seats were not available and advertising fares that were not available at all, Southwest violated 14 CFR 399.84(a) and engaged in unfair and deceptive practices in violation of 49 USC § 41712.:(

I was surprised how many others were fined for similar offenses. Sounds like somebodys got some 'splainin to do..

Based on the facts as stated….

I can entirely understand the penalty in the case of the DING advert. It sounds like SWA didn’t get their act together on that one.

But on the Luv a Fare Sale, it sounds like the DOT is absolutely out of order. I can’t see anything in the two statutes quoted (apologies if I have misread anything) which refers to quantity of seats available. And in any event who or what in the DOT can define ‘reasonable’. I would have thought that as long as at least one seat was available at the sale price, then the regulations had not been transgressed. Of course it is hoped that SWA stated in their advert that ‘fares at this low price are limited’ or some such other wording. Perhaps that was the problem (?)

For what it’s worth – here are SWA’s responses, which in my opinion fell into the ‘W’ category (weak and/or waffle)….

1. Southwest responded to the DOT saying that the “Luv a Fare’’ sale “was very beneficial to consumers’’ and that sale fares in many markets didn’t even sell out.

2. A spokesman for Southwest said that problem resulted from computer problems with its DING! offer. “These were temporary and unintentional circumstances that were aggravated by a technical glitch in our inventory and sales systems,’’ spokesman Brad Hawkins said. “We’ve worked with the DOT to address their concerns and have corrected the issues internally to prevent this from happening again.’’

Lee