Last year, Mango airlines famously became the first South African airline to offer in-flight internet access. Strangely, Mango also became the first South African airline to lie about having internet access on board. Yup, the Advertising Standards Authority has decided that, in order for you to use WiFi access as part of your marketing strategy, you need to actually have WiFi.

Mango passenger, Alon Kowen, made a complaint after the on-flight service had been completely absent for four of his recent flights. The crews on board told him that it had not worked for over a month. In his angry letter, Kowen told the ASA that the only reason he chose to fly Mango was because of the wireless internet:

In my view the seating arrangements on the airline are less favourable, as were the flying times, but the convenience of having wireless made up for this.

So what do you do if you’re in Mango’s position? That’s right – you throw accusations at your customer. Mango called Mr. Kowen “opportunistic” and accusing him of trying to “intimidate” Mango into offering him free flights. Which he categorically denied.

Then Mango proceeded to try wriggle away from the ASA, claiming that the Wi-Fi was still in a ‘testing phase’ and had not been working during Mr Kowen’s flights due to maintenance and repairs. They also went on to say that there was “nothing stopping (Mr Kowen) from making use of another airline for his second, third or fourth flight” after he learnt the Wi-Fi was not working the first time.

Despite Mango’s attempts to get away with it, the ASA ruled against them, after deciding that Mango had failed to show it had “reasonable grounds for believing it would be able to supply the service to its clients in general”.

Mango was ordered to immediately withdraw all advertising of its Wi-Fi services and not to use it again until it could meet the demand.

So why not consider flying Mango next time? Where it’s precisely the same as every other cheap airline – but now with added dishonesty.

[Source : BD Live]