Southwest Airlines hit with second $200,000 fine over fare ads

Southwest Airlines Co. was fined $200,000 Thursday for an October promotion in which it advertised cheap fares that weren’t actually available.

It’s the second time in 10 months that the U.S. Department of Transportation has rapped Southwest’s knuckles for violating the agency’s rules on fare advertising.

In addition, Southwest must pay $100,000 from a previous fine for the same type of violations. The DOT last July had suspended that penalty upon Southwest’s pledge to correct the violations.

In a consent order with Southwest, the DOT said the Dallas-based airline had engaged in “unfair and deceptive practices and unfair methods of competition.”

“DOT’s full-fare advertising rules were put into place to ensure that consumers are not deceived when they search for plane tickets,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in the department’s announcement.

“Consumers have rights, and DOT will continue to take enforcement action against carriers and ticket agents when our price advertising rules are violated,” Foxx said.

The department said Southwest last October “ran a television advertisement on eight networks in the Atlanta area advertising $59 sale fares to New York, Los Angeles and Chicago on certain dates.”

However, DOT investigators found that Southwest didn’t make any seats available to those cities at that price.

“By advertising fares for which no seats were available at all, Southwest violated the full fare advertising rule and engaged in prohibited unfair and deceptive practices,” the agency said.

Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Brandy King acknowledged that “the audio portion of the TV advertisement incorrectly stated three cities that were never intended to be a part of the $59 sale … As soon as we became aware of our mistake, we pulled all incorrect advertisements off the air.”

Despite the error, “the sale provided significant savings to consumers in Atlanta and across the country — with more than 300,000 consumers saving millions of dollars,” King said.

She said Southwest “did honor the $59 fare for any consumer who called reservations” requesting $59 tickets to New York, Los Angeles and Chicago out of Atlanta.

The previous DOT fine involved a Southwest fare sale announced Jan. 11, 2013, for travel on Feb. 14, 2013. In a July 30, 2013, order, DOT said the carrier didn’t have a “reasonable number of seats available” on a number of routes included in the sale.

In addition, Southwest advertised a $66 fare between Dallas and Branson, Mo., for March 1-21, 2013. The DOT said no seats were made available at that fare.

Follow Terry Maxon on Twitter at @tmaxon.

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