Originally Posted by
chongcao
As I mentioned later, £0 fares were advertised heavily for a long period of time. It is not my problem why EI did not advertise fares with tax and fees in that time. But it did exist. Even last winter you can still book £0 return base fare.
It's against the law for airlines in Europe to advertise a fare that is not the total fare including all unavoidable taxes, fees, and charges. Advertising a fare of £0 when the actual amount that had to be paid was different is therefore illegal.
In 2009,
Aer Lingus made a hoop-la in the UK with an all-in fee of £9.99 on several routes, but even that got them
into trouble. (The people who stripped off for that gimmick got two free flights each - maybe that's where your memory of free flights comes from?).
So I really don't see how Aer Lingus could ever have advertised a £0 fare in the UK marketplace. I've done a quick search online to try and find any trace of such an offer, but I can find none. Their own website, which contains the press release for the offer above, and many other sales, suggests nothing about any £0, or "only taxes and charges" offers.