Megabus banned from advertising ‘from £1’ seats

Megabus adverts offering fares “from £1” have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority, saying “consumers should reasonably be able to expect to find seats at that price”, says iNews.

The firm has admitted that on some coaches, only one seat is available at that price.

“A new Aberystwyth to Birmingham service” trip with “from £1*” highlighted in a yellow circle was advertised on a website and Facebook post in September. Another Facebook post offered “day trips from £1* London to Bath”.

It was later determined that only 4% of the Aberystwyth-Birmingham seats were available at the advertised price, with the London-Bath route only have 3% of seats offered at this price.

The ASA told Megabus to “ensure in future that when using ‘from £1’ price claims a significant proportion of the advertised fares were available at £1, so that consumers would have a reasonable chance of obtaining the products at the advertised ‘from’ price,” the ASA said.

Megabus said £1 fares were generally available if a booking was made more than four weeks in advance.

A company spokeswoman said: “We have always provided clear and transparent pricing for all of our customers, including the many thousands who have taken advantage of our great £1 seat offer.

“While we will continue to offer seats from £1, in line with recommendations from the ASA, we have decided to focus our marketing on the great value that all megabus.com fares offer, along with welcome extras such as on board wi-fi and charging points.”