DALLAS (AP) -- Southwest Airlines is being fined $200,000 for advertising a fare sale too good to be true.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said Thursday that in TV ads last October the airline promised flights from Atlanta to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles for just $59 -- but didn't make any seats available at that price.
The government says Southwest's ads were deceptive and violated rules on advertising of airline fares.
Southwest is being required to pay an extra $100,000 that was suspended after a similar offense last year.
Southwest said that it was all a mistake -- that those three cities were never intended to be part of the Atlanta fare sale but wound up in the advertisement after a flawed review of the ad copy.
"As soon as we became aware of our mistake, we pulled all incorrect advertisements off the air," said spokesman Brad Hawkins.
The airline said that it honored the $59 fare to the three cities for consumers who called its reservations center and asked for that price.
