close to 40% difference in award taxes and surcharges!

[corrad]

raising an issue that may have been discussed before:

basically singaporeair.com may not display anywhere close to the correct amount of taxes and charges for an award booking originating in countries other than Singapore. We learnt this the hard way after checking the credit card statement

currently for example, if one were to making an award booking for TPE-SIN-SYD for 1 passenger in business class, the amount according to the web site is $6,911 TWD, which is equivalent to about $300 SGD. However, what singapore airline will actually charge is $416 SGD! A difference of 38.9%!

was on the phone with Krisflyer and they claimed that that's what Bank charges and FCY exchange

surely this must be illegal?

 

[mimishat]

Bank and FCY fees show as a separate line on my cc statement after the FCY transaction (which also shows the FCY amount) - do they on yours? If you have been quoted and agreed to pay $6,911 TWD that is what you should pay and should be debited from your account (plus of course your bank fees). I'd be calling my bank to see why the transaction is so high.

 

[hb13]

Corrad - have you printed a screenshot of your original fees/charges? Because that sounds ridiculous and surely they can't get away with it. Has this happened to anyone else?

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

made 2 ex SYD bookings with SQ last year and the taxes in AUD matched what was billed to my CC.

Your credit card statement should show you what current you were billed in.

the SQ web site states that billing will be as per the ticketing currency, which would mean they should have billed you in TWD and not SGD. You should have roughly paid $300 AUD

 

[dajop]

Need to remember that SQ reduced their fuel surcharges on 27 Feb. I can't recall the exact figure but I would expect that for TPE-SIN-SYD has had a reduction in fuel surcharges of around $100 for travel booked after 27 Feb (i.e. showing on website now) vs before.

 

[corrad]

Corrad - have you printed a screenshot of your original fees/charges? Because that sounds ridiculous and surely they can't get away with it. Has this happened to anyone else?

i wish now I have taken screenshots indicating that the taxes would be around $15,000 TWD for 2 passengers. The receipt did show they were charging $416SGD per person (or around $9800 TWD).

They have now escalated higher up for investigation.

 

[corrad]

made 2 ex SYD bookings with SQ last year and the taxes in AUD matched what was billed to my CC.

Your credit card statement should show you what current you were billed in.

the SQ web site states that billing will be as per the ticketing currency, which would mean they should have billed you in TWD and not SGD. You should have roughly paid $300 AUD

The credit card statement matched exactly what the receipt showed: $416SGD per person. What I do recall is that at the time of booking on SIA.com, it indicated it would be around $15000 TWD for 2 passenger, or roughly $320 SGD per person.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Sounds weird to me - I have made dozens and dozens KF rdpts both online and phone and I have never seen discrepancies such as this.

 

[corrad]

made 2 ex SYD bookings with SQ last year and the taxes in AUD matched what was billed to my CC.

Your credit card statement should show you what current you were billed in.

the SQ web site states that billing will be as per the ticketing currency, which would mean they should have billed you in TWD and not SGD. You should have roughly paid $300 AUD

One more thing, the CSR I spoke to indicated that taxes and surcharges are different when booking online versus booking over the phone. Note, he didn't state that the difference is due to the phone booking fee; the booking was made initially online but the award seats were waitlisted.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Originally waitlisted online but finalised over phone? If finalised on phone then YES you will be billed in S$.

Again I am totally unaware of any difference in taxes and fees online / phone and NO I have never paid a booking fee for phone booking.

 

[corrad]

Originally waitlisted online but finalised over phone? If finalised on phone then YES you will be billed in S$.

Again I am totally unaware of any difference in taxes and fees online / phone and NO I have never paid a booking fee for phone booking.

Apparently a member on Flyertalk has experienced something similar.

Quote:

"I've come across this before.

This is probably due to different Point-of-Sale (Krisflyer phone line will be SIN, website will be departure country). 2-3 years ago, I saw a lower surcharge ex-ICN online compared to what the phone agent was quoting. I had to point this out, and the agent was then able to lower it to the website cost. Not sure whethe the same will apply today."

 

[Cruiser Elite]

corrad I am not saying it cannot happen - it justs so weird. Have you gone back on to web site to recreate your original booking? How do taxes and fees compare now? Did you call KF whilst viewing current taxes and charges and ask them to check what they price them at?

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

The credit card statement matched exactly what the receipt showed: $416SGD per person. What I do recall is that at the time of booking on SIA.com, it indicated it would be around $15000 TWD for 2 passenger, or roughly $320 SGD per person.

So the question is why did they bill you in SGD when the ticketing currency would have been TWD.

Get them to clarify that and hopefully that will get you closer to understanding the large discrepancy.

I've only every made bookings online which may be why I've not had any issues so far.

 

[corrad]

So the question is why did they bill you in SGD when the ticketing currency would have been TWD.

Get them to clarify that and hopefully that will get you closer to understanding the large discrepancy.

I've only every made bookings online which may be why I've not had any issues so far.

apparently if an award booking is waitlisted initially and subsequently ticketed over the phone (this is the only method available), SQ would collect more surcharges (note, only for certain cities origin) and SQ would bill in SGD.

I have just responded to the Customer Affairs Manager, let's see what they came back with....

 

[corrad]

corrad I am not saying it cannot happen - it justs so weird. Have you gone back on to web site to recreate your original booking? How do taxes and fees compare now? Did you call KF whilst viewing current taxes and charges and ask them to check what they price them at?

I just checked, and booking the same routing online, taxes/surcharges are 6,911 TWD (or 300 SQD). However, I also called SQ in singapore and asked them how much are the taxes/surcharges if the reservation was made over the phone, and the CSR stated it would 381 SQD.

A difference of 81 SQD; very similar to the difference I am experiencing for my original booking.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

I just checked, and booking the same routing online, taxes/surcharges are 6,911 TWD (or 300 SQD). However, I also called SQ in singapore and asked them how much are the taxes/surcharges if the reservation was made over the phone, and the CSR stated it would 381 SQD.

A difference of 81 SQD; very similar to the difference I am experiencing for my original booking.

And did you throw out the Julius Sumner Miller line - "How is it so"?