Air Asia's "Free" Processing Fees!

[Guest fountainhall]

In a full page ad in today's Straits Times in Singapore, Air Asia advertises a ton of flights stressing they include all fares, fuel surcharges and airport taxes. The small print then adds -

 

A payment processing free is applicable to all payments made by credit, debit or charge cards

So much for the airline advertising agency's proof-reading abilities!

[Rogie]

A nasty little trick some of the British carriers have up their sleeve is to waive any credit card charges if you use an 'Electron' card. The snag is that particular card is only available to a small number of applicants.

 

"The problem is that the Visa Electron card, which is the only card most of the budget airlines don't charge for transactions, is a rare acquisition for the kind of person who tends to buy flights.

Visa Electron is a very limited Visa debit card, designed for teenagers and students. It won't allow you to go overdrawn and cannot be used in as many places."

http://blogs.thisism...ne-charges.html

 

Since that article was written even more banks have withdrawn this card, so beating the credit card catch is almost impossible!

[ChristianPFC]

Yes, the processing fee is a strange thing. Especially if it applies to all available forms of payment, they could add it right at the beginning. Even more strange is that different companies have different processing fees for the same method of payment.

 

It's like if a supermarket has a fee for using the till to pay.

[Guest]

A lot of these low cost airlines have similar charges.

 

I don't think it makes a lot of difference how they make up the total price.

Obviously charging for check in luggage is fair, as anyone just taking a 1~2 day trip can opt to use hand luggage & it seems reasonable not to pay for the baggage handling.

 

The card charges are slightly inconvenient, as it is necessary to click through a couple of screens to find the full price. However, as many low cost airline routes only have one or two competitors, the time wasted comparing prices is very small.

Banning the card charges & moving the cost to the headline ticket price would be slightly more convenient for customers, but the current practice is not a major problem.

[Guest snapshot]

So much for the airline advertising agency's proof-reading abilities!

They probably made it an optional ancillary charge, which the client refused to pay.

[Guest fountainhall]

They probably made it an optional ancillary charge, which the client refused to pay.

Good one! I like it!

[ChristianPFC]

Yesterday, I wanted to book a flight in Europe (Paris-Berlin and back), and was surprised how the price grew from 78 E (displayed on the search) to 92 E (with emission charge), and then they wanted to add another 16 E for payment by credit card (to make a total of 108 E), I abandoned the website to sleep over the matter.

 

It helped: I went to the airline's homepage (easyjet), where I got the flight for a total price of 81 E : no emission charge, no other various taxes and most important no charge for paying by vire transfer (credit card payment costs 6 E or 2,5% whichever is greater).

[Rogie]

It helped:

 

Good for you Christian. Maybe such a site should be named and shamed, at least in France if the site's in French. This kind of tactic relies to a large extent on the customer getting weary having devoted a fair amount of time up to the point where he is bombarded with 'extras' and he shrugs his shoulders and carries on. What is needed is more clarity from the outset.

[ChristianPFC]

The additional charges were similar for the following sites I tried: opodo, govoyages, edreams and bravofly.

 

Bravofly deserves mentioning as is has an overview of prices up to +- 3 days from the main date. This gives a grid of 49 different choises for day of departure and return, the lowest price for that combination shown in the grid. That fulfils my needs, as I have usually a flexibility of one week for my flight dates.

[Guest fountainhall]

Bravofly deserves mentioning

 

I have a ‘thing’ about sites offering flight bookings. I have never yet found one which can get me a fare that is cheaper than I can get either direct from the airline’s own site or through an agent!

 

I tried bravofly.com for the first time this morning to find the cheapest return fare between Bangkok and Singapore. I do like the look of the page and the ease of navigation. Many western-based sites get absurdly high prices for this route. Bravofly includes all the low cost carriers and quotes no less that 2,655 different fares for all sorts of flight combinations! But for some odd reason it omits the daily Cathay Pacific flight; odd because this is the cheapest bookable fare offered by any full service carrier on the route. And that makes the whole site suspect in my book.

 

I also tried Bangkok/Hong Kong return. Again, there are hundreds of prices. But economy in Emirates is quoted at around Bt. 17,400. Use Emirates own website and that is Bt. 3,000 MORE than the cost of business class!

 

And I noted bravofly will quote in only three Asian currencies – Japanese ¥ and these two -

 

Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)

Malaysian Ringgit (SGD)

 

 

To be fair, I checked the same flights/dates/prices on zuji.com, the Asian site organized by some of the main carriers. It has BKK/SIN return on Cathay at Bt. 28,000. On Cathay’s own website, that fare is just Bt. 8,500!! For the Bangkok/Hong Kong return on Emirates, the fare is around Bt. 9,000 compared to Bt. 8,450 on Emirate's own website.

 

The answer is, I reckon, always to check around and find a site that suits your particular needs. But always also check directly with airline sites and travel agents for special last-minute deals.

[Rogie]

The answer is, I reckon, always to check around and find a site that suits your particular needs. But always also check directly with airline sites and travel agents for special last-minute deals.

That's good advice FH.

 

Seems all the wizardry in the world, or at least cyberspace, doesn't guarantee everything appearing therein is sensible.

 

Speaking of travel agents, if I am booking a trip or holiday when I'm intending to be away a long time I like to use a travel agent. I use one based in London, and book either on the phone or by email. The reason I prefer to do this is because if there are any problems I have someone, ie. a named 'travel consultant' I can ask for help. For example, had I been scheduled to travel during the Icelandic volcano episode or during an airline strike or bad weather in Britain (British airports can't cope with too much snow!), I can contact them to see if they can help. Such complicating world situations seem to be getting more common these days. If I book on a website who do I speak to if I have a problem? There is an annual fee but I am happy to pay this.

 

Something else one needs to be aware of are the arrangements if you need to make a date change. This is especially important if you are away for a month or two which I quite often am. I always make sure I specify to the travel agent I want a booking that permits date changes. On a typical journey to Australia, with a stopover in Thailand, it would cost around 4000 baht to change any date - that's in economy, perhaps a business class ticket is more flexible. I think if you book on line it isn't always easy to get that information.

[ChristianPFC]

I book my flights 2 or 3 months in advance, that excludes last minute deals.

 

Next time, I will check on the airline's hompages for prices (after finding a suitable flight on a travel webpage).

[Guest]

For long haul flights, I check Opodo & Kayak, then the airlines own website.

Sometimes booking direct is more expensive, sometimes it is cheaper. From my small sample size, I have usually found it cheaper to book indirectly.

 

Booking direct with the airline seems to offer a couple of advantages -including selecting your seat & a clearer documented reply regarding the special meal or such requests.

For example, Opodo allow you to select a special meal, but the booking confirmation e-mail doesn't refer to this. So I end up phoning the airline to check these things.