V-Flyer

My SO and I are heading for Florida (MAN/MCO) for, atypically, a week of birdwatching at Cape Canaveral and Sanibel Island. We'd used miles for the PE flights, and last night, I called and discover that an upgrade to UC on the way out was available - 30K miles + £60 - bargain. Booked it immediately, and today, discovered that for paying with the Virgin Amex card, I have been charged £12! That's 20% of the transaction value.

Had I known this, I would have paid by debit card.

All a bit naughty, if you ask me.

The charge to pay on a credit card with Virgin is 1.5% which the agent should tell you on the phone before the put the transaction through.

If you have been charged more, you need to call Virgin and discuss this.

Indeed, Neil, I just did (always nice to hear a Welsh accent

Most likely to be an error in the system, telling me about non-existent charges. Advised to wait until CC statement, but normally, VA do not charge added fees for changes/upgrades. Thinks the system has misinterpreted as a new booking.

Systems, eh?

We'll see...

It really annoys me too that if I buy a Virgin ticket and use a Virgin card I am still charged a fee.
I don't get charged a fee when I go shopping so why do airlines think they can do this ?

JCBR wrote:It really annoys me too that if I buy a Virgin ticket and use a Virgin card I am still charged a fee.
I don't get charged a fee when I go shopping so why do airlines think they can do this ?

Expedia charge a fixed admin fee (£8 the last time I bought a ticket from them) rather than a % of the fare.

So it's not that hard to do!

JCBR wrote:It really annoys me too that if I buy a Virgin ticket and use a Virgin card I am still charged a fee.
I don't get charged a fee when I go shopping so why do airlines think they can do this ?

Errrr....you do. It's just the merchant doesn't always pass it on. They would if they thought they could get away with it.

you get more miles by using your Virgin CC dont you?
its something people have always moaned about. Even on budget airlines like RyanAir & Easyjet who charge a flat £5.
Always had an electron just for flights as they cant charge a fee.

I understand the frustration - but it's pretty clear on the info that they charge 1.5% for new bookings. But an upgrade never charges this -at least not the times I've done it, so you should get it back.

I have never booked a flight when talking to someone or online with VS where the CC fee has not been mentioned in advance. And I've booked 100s and even when talking to head office and not the call centre they inform you. Are you certain it wasn't mentioned to you - albeit that the sum seems to be wrong?

slinky09 wrote:I have never booked a flight when talking to someone or online with VS where the CC fee has not been mentioned in advance. And I've booked 100s and even when talking to head office and not the call centre they inform you. Are you certain it wasn't mentioned to you - albeit that the sum seems to be wrong?

Same for me. Always mentioned all the time

I have no problem paying credit charges for anything, as a merchant I'm well aware of the charges that merchants pay for card processing, albeit on a much smaller scale of course, and my rates are higher than the big companies. I pay close to 3% as a merchant, so I have to pass that cost on.

What I object to, and this is a fault of the budget airlines, although one or two have gotten better, is the £5 or even £10 charge for using debit cards (except electron) when the maximum cost for those transactions is 50p per transaction of any value. Now that's ripping off your customers!

Bretty wrote: I pay close to 3% as a merchant, so I have to pass that cost on.

Holy cow! How much?

We are a very small retailer in the grand scheme of things but only pay 1.2% for visa/master card and 1.9% for amex no less, you should renegotiate and sooner rather than later

Alex V wrote:

Bretty wrote: I pay close to 3% as a merchant, so I have to pass that cost on.

Holy cow! How much?

We are a very small retailer in the grand scheme of things but only pay 1.2% for visa/master card and 1.9% for amex no less, you should renegotiate and sooner rather than later

To be fair I've recently changed my deal because of a reduction in card transactions in my business over a 12 month period. I had much better rates but it included a monthly terminal rental and admin fee which over the year was adding cost. Previously I had a higher turnover going through card transactions. Now I'm PAYG which suits my business better as it stands due to changes in services I offer and my customer base.

The rates get better the the more you put through and I had good rates similar to yours. I'm not a retailer with lots of transactions, my business is service oriented and there are fewer transactions with payments now by BACS and cheque (my biggest customer still uses cheques!).

Mind you my amex rate used to be 3.2% which was horrendous!

That does make sense bretty so fair play, glad its working for you.

Cheers

Alex