Clarity on CC fee for reward bookings

[paultiffen]

Hi,

So after having made numerous bookings for family members using my Velocity points I booked for my sister and her bf to go to the Gold Coast. Normally I would do separate bookings but in this case put it on the same one as was in a rush. I got charged the CC fee but figured it was a website error and would ring up later to correct.

Rang up 13 67 89 and got through to Platinum desk where a team member Heath advised me that it was payable on all bookings where the taxes were payable via credit card. Advised him that they needed to provide at least one fee free option by law (ie Poli) and that there were numerous other bookings that I was not charged on nor do I expect that 7 dollars on 37 of fees is a reasonable CC surcharge if that is the only option available to pay the ticket. After he tried to tell me a couple more times that it should attract the fee and him wanting to get off the line ASAP I gave him an example booking with no fee. He then got out the manual and found the rule that:
- If the taxes are less than the cc fee on a general ticket ie less than 7 dollars then its not charged
- If the taxes are over 50 dollars then it is charged on a reward ticket

As I put them both on the same booking the total was approx 76 dollars in taxes return and I was charged per person 7 dollars for 14 dollars total. ie the credit card fee is 14/76 or 18% - that's worse than cabcharge. What's retarded is that to make separate bookings I would have avoided it even though this is presumably more complicated for Virgin to manage on the system. Heath could do nothing for me and told me to email which is not great in and of itself for a Platinum line - why do I need to go to a separate department and why can't he handle that request directly. When I emailed I received the generic response below. I'm obviously going to change and book separately in future but hopefully this can be a warning of the lack of looking after a customer in general - the general response I would expect is:
- Waive the fee on my file and make a note
- Make the rules more clear on the website as to when the fee is charged in general
- If a fee is charged per person then make the 50 dollar amount also per person
- Train your phone staff to be on top of the rules as to when it's charged
- Give discretion to the first point of contact to be able to handle all requests including refunds

Maybe the Velocity rep can get involved?

Cheers,
Paul

Dear Mr. Tiffen, Firstly, thank you for your feedback and taking the time to let us know of your recent experience. It is with regret to read of your dissatisfaction with our Conditions of Carriage and I sincerely apologise for any disappointment caused as a result of this experience. Whilst we do appreciate your situation, the tickets you have purchased include terms and conditions which all of our guests agree to at the time of booking. These conditions are essential to maintain competitive fares and we are required to operate within certain guidelines so that all of our guests are treated fairly and equitably. Your comments are an important opportunity for us to further review our Conditions of Carriage and your feedback has been distributed to our Revenue Management department via our comprehensive reporting system. I do hope you give us the opportunity to welcome you back on board one of our flights in the near future, and provide you with the high standards of service we pride ourselves upon. Kind regards, Kristy xx_xx_xx | Guest Relations Coordinator

 

[knasty]

Paul it doesn't help in this case but next time use points + pay to use points to reduce the cash payment to less than $50. When I had the same situation I used the slider to get the cash from $70 odd to $49.

 

[TtiGeR]

I had to split a return booking to two one-way bookings to avoid the CC charges.

Basically if the cash/card component is not more than $50 then there is no CC charge. Or maybe use POLi...

 

[dandandan]

There is no Poli offered when booking a reward ticket which is annoying! I posted on this a while ago however there was no real annoyance to others from memory. When the taxes are around $80 for 3 people and the CC charge is $21, yes the percentage is high as the OP states.

Last week I booked single sectors for me and my son first and then my wife, to get the taxes under $50 and get around paying the CC fee. As my wife is Platinum now we could all still get row 3 which didn't make the work around to bad.

This is rort I think. Yes you can use more points to try and help get around it or you can do some separate bookings. I don't understand why there is no Poli option when paying taxes on reward bookings. Should there be one free option by law as the OP says?

I had to split a return booking to two one-way bookings to avoid the CC charges.

Basically if the cash/card component is not more than $50 then there is no CC charge. Or maybe use POLi...

 

[greenfish]

There is no Poli offered when booking a reward ticket which is annoying! I posted on this a while ago however there was no real annoyance to others from memory. When the taxes are around $80 for 3 people and the CC charge is $21, yes the percentage is high as the OP states.

Last week I booked single sectors for me and my son first and then my wife, to get the taxes under $50 and get around paying the CC fee. As my wife is Platinum now we could all still get row 3 which didn't make the work around to bad.

This is rort I think. Yes you can use more points to try and help get around it or you can do some separate bookings. I don't understand why there is no Poli option when paying taxes on reward bookings. Should there be one free option by law as the OP says?

I posted my complaint about this earlier as I was stung with a $30 cc fee per person on taxes of around $80 per person - an international reward booking. So really you're getting off lightly

Silly thing is, with their low taxes compared to QF, they could just incorporate the fee into the taxes, instead of leaving one feeling rippled off at paying what could be worst case, a 60% credit card fee ($30 on $50 taxes).

 

[orin]

It was shown to me a $30 dollar charge for an international redemption. But later checking on the CC it only charged me the tax and not the surcharge.

I did get an error on payment, but I called them and they said everything is fine, so I didn't pursue further.

Are you sure you were actually charged the surcharge?

 

[greenfish]

It was shown to me a $30 dollar charge for an international redemption. But later checking on the CC it only charged me the tax and not the surcharge.

I did get an error on payment, but I called them and they said everything is fine, so I didn't pursue further.

Are you sure you were actually charged the surcharge?

Yep, had to do it through the contact center. Interestingly the CC fee doesn't appear to apply to EY bookings done through the contact centre.

 

[paultiffen]

It was shown to me a $30 dollar charge for an international redemption. But later checking on the CC it only charged me the tax and not the surcharge.

I did get an error on payment, but I called them and they said everything is fine, so I didn't pursue further.

Are you sure you were actually charged the surcharge?

Hi,

Yep can see two charges of 7.70 on my cc statement. They should do a better job of explaining the rules and I would generally expect for a top member to do a one off waive of charges similar to what banks/telcos would often do.