Advert banned over complimentary food and drink claims on train services

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An advert for CrossCountry Trains has been banned for over-promising on the supply of complimentary food and drink for passengers.

Despite the agency’s web site claiming passengers would obtain free food and drink “on most of our first-class services”, catering was out there on lower than 80 per cent of journeys, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) discovered.

The web site stated: “An at-seat service of complimentary non-alcoholic drinks and snacks is available throughout the day for all first-class customers… In addition to drinks and snacks, customers on longer journeys can choose from a range of complimentary sandwiches.”

Two passengers who stated they ceaselessly travelled on the first-class service however didn’t obtain complimentary food and drink complained that the advert was deceptive.

CrossCountry Trains advised the ASA the interval main as much as the complainants seeing the advert – September to November 2023 – was marked by “exceptional disruption” attributable to industrial motion and 4 storms.

It had deliberate to supply catering, together with first-class food and drink, on between 70 per cent and 78 per cent of its Voyager routes, which operated on most of its long-distance services from September to November 2023, with slight variations relying on the day of the week.

The ASA stated the advert “positioned complimentary food and drink as a key part of CrossCountry Trains’ first-class offering”.

It stated the scheduled charge of between70 per cent and 78 per cent of services providing catering was inadequate to substantiate the general impression of the advert that complimentary food and drink could be out there on all however just a few first-class services.

The ASA stated: “We acknowledged that CrossCountry Trains had made amendments to their website, but for the reasons stated above, we concluded that the claim ‘complimentary food and drink’ was misleading, and therefore breached the Code.”

It dominated that the advert should not seem once more, including: “We told CrossCountry Trains not to use the claim ‘complimentary food and drink’ unless they held adequate evidence to substantiate the claim.”