esseeeayeenn
Established Member
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2014
- Posts
- 2,834
- Qantas
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Recently I have noticed when I book with Qantas it raises two charges on my credit card.
A pending charge for the whole fare which never actually turns into a charge and disappears after 7-10 days.
And a subsequent charge for the same amount which does convert from a pending to an actual charge within a couple of days.
At first the amounts were small and it didn't cause me concern.
However I just took advantage of the sale to book an international trip in business and realised the available funds in my credit card are thousands of dollars lower than they should be because of this temporary double dipping.
I contacted Qantas on twitter and they told me this was because a hold is placed on the card at the time of booking.
But the actual charge is processed later by "Qantas Finance"- whoever they might be.
This could be a potential problem.
FIrst because you are deprived of access to your credit for a period of 7-10 days.
Second, this procedure may actually stop you fianlising the booking.
Imagine if you book business class flights to Europe costing around $8,000.
Even if your credit card has no outstanding balance to start with, if Qantas puts an $8,000 block on the card and then tries to charge $8,000 to it as well, you would need a credit limit of $16,000 for the charge to succeed.
What happens if it fails due to the block?
Do you lose your booking for non-payment? Do they give you time to pay?
The block won't be released for up to 10 days, will they give you that long to pay?
I know how blocks work and I know it is a real ordeal to try to have them released early, although the merchant can do it.
Has anyone run into this problem?
A pending charge for the whole fare which never actually turns into a charge and disappears after 7-10 days.
And a subsequent charge for the same amount which does convert from a pending to an actual charge within a couple of days.
At first the amounts were small and it didn't cause me concern.
However I just took advantage of the sale to book an international trip in business and realised the available funds in my credit card are thousands of dollars lower than they should be because of this temporary double dipping.
I contacted Qantas on twitter and they told me this was because a hold is placed on the card at the time of booking.
But the actual charge is processed later by "Qantas Finance"- whoever they might be.
This could be a potential problem.
FIrst because you are deprived of access to your credit for a period of 7-10 days.
Second, this procedure may actually stop you fianlising the booking.
Imagine if you book business class flights to Europe costing around $8,000.
Even if your credit card has no outstanding balance to start with, if Qantas puts an $8,000 block on the card and then tries to charge $8,000 to it as well, you would need a credit limit of $16,000 for the charge to succeed.
What happens if it fails due to the block?
Do you lose your booking for non-payment? Do they give you time to pay?
The block won't be released for up to 10 days, will they give you that long to pay?
I know how blocks work and I know it is a real ordeal to try to have them released early, although the merchant can do it.
Has anyone run into this problem?