BPay - not worth the stress?

[Moody]

I was purchasing a Sydney-Istanbul return (QF codeshare on EK), and was well pleased to get it for less than $1600. Or I was until I saw that the credit card fee would take it over. This offended my scottish heritage so I thought "Bugger it - I'll BPay!"

This was Tuesday night (after 6pm) so I wasn't surprised to see on Wednesday that the Qantas site was saying "Please pay by midnight Tuesday". I checked again on Thursday, and was a little worried to see the message was still there. I rang my bank and asked them what happened to the 1-2 business days for BPay. They said it could be up to 3, and I should check again Friday. Still not cleared on Friday, so I called Qantas and they said that if the BPay didn't come through in a timely manner, they may very well contact me to insist on another payment method.

Now I was starting to sweat a little, and come Saturday there was still no news so I rang witch bank again to ask them to track down my payment. The said that it was a dispatch and forget system, and could take up to 5 business days before completion. WTF!

Of course this time when I ring Qantas I get the horns. "Emirates could cancel this fare at any time." .... "No I can't tell you when that might happen." .... "No - there is no point contacting them because it is a Qantas fare." ... "Yes - you can change the payment to CC, but I can't tell you how long the BPay chargeback might take and that will cost you an additional $70 because it is a change that you are making!!!"

This last one made my blood boil - "So you offer a payment method that doesn't incur a surcharge - but which is completely un-trackable and has arbitrary time frames, and could be cancelled on a whim?" [I may have used some additional adjectives].

She then said - "Are you sure you didn't get the Cust. Ref. # wrong?" I had checked it maybe 5 times but to humour her I recited it again from memory. "Hang on", she said, and put me on hold. I though it was a ruse to get me to hang up, but 5 minutes later she came back on the line a said - "It's just been ticketed now. Good-bye." and hung up on me.

I suspect there was a balls-up on their side, but next time I consider using BPay I will shut my head in a door.

 

[harvyk]

I use BPay all the time, never had an issue. It usually takes 5 days for the tickets to come through, and until they do ticket if that message stays on the booking.

Provided that you've followed the rules (ie made payment by midnight AEST) you'll be fine. Their fee free payment method must be as reliable as their CC method otherwise they would be in breach of pricing laws (having a price which could not be accessed)

 

[Hvr]

Or I was until I saw that the credit card fee would take it over.

Assuming you purchased this on the QF site why not purchase a a $50 gift voucher, get it a minute later and then purchase the fare with no credit card surcharge?

No fuss nor grief plus you can earn points on your CC.

 

[Moody]

Assuming you purchased this on the QF site why not purchase a a $50 gift voucher, get it a minute later and then purchase the fare with no credit card surcharge?

No fuss nor grief plus you can earn points on your CC.

Sounds like a perfect solution - I'll have to look that one up. Thanks.

 

[opusman]

Qantas have a long-standing bug where sometimes bookings simply don't ticket until given a nudge by customer service. I'd guess that's what happened in your case.