Eurostar reprimanded over ‘misleading’ £39 tickets promotion

EUROSTAR has been reprimanded for running “misleading” ads after regulators found that only a tiny proportion of tickets between London, Paris and Brussels were sold for a promised £39.

In advertisements sent out by email last summer, it urged consumers to treat themselves “to a European getaway from just £39 each way”.

But the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) yesterday said the promotion was misleading after a customer complained they could only find one ticket from London to Paris for that.

It comes just days after thousands of Eurostar passengers had their services cancelled last weekend after floods overwhelmed the Thames Tunnel, blocking the route through Kent.

Trains were running again the next day but limited seat numbers meant many travellers had to rebook journeys days later, forcing some to spend thousands of pounds on temporary hotel accommodation.

The watchdog said it analysed journeys between London and Paris, as well as others between London, Brussels and Lille, and found only “a very small percentage” of tickets at the advertised rate.

The ASA added: “Consumers would expect to find the tickets available at the ‘from’ price across a range of dates and times within that period, and that they would have a reasonable chance of obtaining a seat at the advertised price.

“However, because we considered that a significant proportion of tickets had not been available at the ‘from’ price, we concluded that the claim … was therefore misleading.”

The ASA said that from Aug 16 to Dec 13, only 9,500 of the standard class seats sold by Eurostar between London and Paris were going for the advertised £39.

Another 6,500 from London to Brussels and Lille were available at the same rate, along with 13,500 from Brussels and Lille to London.

This means as few as 1-2pc of tickets were ultimately sold at the promised rate of £39, a Telegraph analysis suggests. From London to Paris alone, at least 1,400 services carrying about 900 passengers each – or nearly 1.3m seats – would have run. Eurostar declined to comment on the figures.

When challenged by the ASA, Eurostar initially insisted its terms and conditions had made clear that only limited numbers of cheaper tickets would be available. The company also said it received no complaints directly.

Eurostar said 39,000 seats had been made available at the advertised “from” price across the routes, which it said gave customers a reasonable chance of getting the advertised deal.

But in an assessment, the ASA said most consumers would have understood Eurostar’s advert to mean that “a significant proportion of fares would be available to purchase at £39”.

As a rule of thumb, the watchdog regards 10pc of fares as the minimum threshold for such a claim. It told Eurostar to follow that rule in future when running similar promotions. A Eurostar spokesman said: “We understand and take on board the ASA’S ruling which is related to seat availability in part of the promotional period, and we are committed to ensuring that this scenario does not occur again.”

Eurostar is facing the threat of greater competition from rivals that are planning to set up their own London-paris services.

Eurostar has held a relative monopoly on London to Paris journeys ever since they were introduced in 1994.

The 31-mile Channel tunnel is owned by infrastructure company Getlink.

Cologne, Frankfurt, Geneva and Zurich are among new destinations being targeted.