Comments on: European airlines expand credit card fees – will the U.S. be next?

By: European airlines expand credit card fees – will the U.S. be next? | NEWCREDITCENTER.COM

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 06:41:33 +0000

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By: smartmoney » How Does The Credit Card Debt Consolidation Concept Work? | Credit Cards Finance Wisdom

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 04:13:31 +0000

[...] European airlines expand credit card fees – will the U.S. be next? [...]

By: DaveS

DaveS — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:20:22 +0000

All “fees” that are unavoidable – unless imposed by a government or outside agency – need to be illegal. This is simply false advertising, bait and switch. I am inherently hostile to any “service” provider that lies to me about prices.

By: John M

John M — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:56:56 +0000

Let’s not overlook the fact that United has already started to pass along the credit card costs to some travel agencies. This means that the travel agencies will have to pass along those costs to the consumer. This wouldn’t be a big deal on a ticket that runs $150.00 but it becomes a really big deal when the ticket is $10,000.00. By doing this, United is accomplishing several things, first, they increase their profitability since they aren’t lowering the fare, even though they are no longer pay the cost to process the credit card. This is a 3% or 4% increase in the cost of the ticket to the consumer who uses a credit card through one of the agencies that United has hit.

The second thing it does, is that it reduces the ability for the consumer to dispute the charge if there is a problem with their trip. The reason for this is because United is no longer the merchant, the travel agency is. By the way, the travel agency doesn’t keep any of the money that they collect for the airfare, just the fee that they charge.

The third thing it does, is discourage consumers from using travel agents, which could come to include Expedia, Orbitz, etc. and thus drive consumers to United’s website. What’s the downside to that? The main one is that at United’s website is that the consumer only gets what the airline offers up. They won’t show you what the other airlines are offering and United may or may not show you all the flight options or combinations that you can get from a travel agency.

As far as the airlines charging a service fee to use a credit card, they charge you a fee if you book over the phone or at the ticket counter, so what they are proposing is to charge you a fee to book with them since you have to pay by a credit card if you book online and since they charge to purchase at the counter, they have said that the consumer will pay no matter how the ticket is purchased.

By: Credit Card Debt Consolidation Companies – Reality or Scam … | Credit Cards Finance Wisdom

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:31:22 +0000

[...] European airlines expand credit card fees – will the U.S. be next? [...]

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:23:52 +0000

Charlie wrote – “Regarding airlines trying to get out of paying the 3-something-percent credit card fee, United tried this last fall.” What UA did was to restrict some travel agencies from using a credit card as form of payment for travel agency issued tickets. That’s different from a surcharge. Sabre and other GDS reservation systems now have the software to bury a credit card surcharge in the ticket. The credit card surcharge would appear with taxes so the ability exists if airlines want to turn it on.

Terry wrote, “I hope I didn’t convey too much frustration and sarcasm.” … probably not enough!

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Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:15:53 +0000

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By: Terry

Terry — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:55:11 +0000

Cash payments, documentation, run to the bank, deposit to trust account, document, wait for monies to clear accounts, document, process payment two weeks (or face the risk of NSF if you don’t wait for clearance) later, book ticket, document, issue company cheque to airline, document, pay cheque fees, document, — sounds like a reversal to the dark ages. Totally ludicrous in an age of electronic ability. Not worth the additional time especially since airline commissions are few and far between (to say nothing of minimal). Yes, we can(do) charge a service charge–which opens a whole new bookkeeping issue of time and running around, depositing, waiting, documenting,… (oh, we’ve been down that road already with the airline booking, haven’t we?)

I hope I didn’t convey too much frustration and sarcasm.

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:38:38 +0000

I think it’s about time that Visa / MasterCard started applying the same rules to European merchants as American ones: No surcharges!

Seriously, when was the last time you could pay for a plane ticket with cash? Not even travel agents tend to want cash payments, as the airlines want to see it done via a credit card…

By: European airlines expand credit card fees – will the U.S. be next? | Daily News Headlines

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:35:20 +0000

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