Qantas Credit Card Service Fee (CCSF)

[JohnK]

Just a reminder that at per the Original Post, international flights booked using a CC (non Trans Tasman) incur a $12 fine.

Quite right. Just noticed when I looked at international bookings.

I noticed when using the Singapore and New Zealand QF websites there is no mention of the CCSF on the front page. Is this correct or is the fee added later when finalising booking?

'tis not that simple; international transfers incur a fee, often more than the Qantas CC fine. :-|

Darn, there is always is a catch involved. It would be easier if you had a friend or relative in Australia that could deposit the money in your account.

 

[openseat]

So if you value miles at 1 cent each and your cc earns 1.5 per dollar; to 'recover' the $4.40 booking fee you are having to spend at least $293.34 (including the fee).
BPAY is looking the best for just about every booking for me now (both for my business and personally).

 

[v8Statesman]

So if you value miles at 1 cent each and your cc earns 1.5 per dollar; to 'recover' the $4.40 booking fee you are having to spend at least $293.34 (including the fee).
BPAY is looking the best for just about every booking for me now (both for my business and personally).

I got a QF Ultimate card purely for the 2.5 per QF$ spend. Plus I can now use the "cheap" flight that earns no points to get 1 of my children PER-MEL-PER and Christmas.

 

[JohnK]

Can you BPAY from a credit card to the Qantas account?

I was paying a bill the other day using Commonwealth phone banking and noticed that you can use BPAY to pay a bill using a credit card account. Now I have never used this option, only ever used BPAY from a statement account or passbook account.

My question is if the option is available from Commonwealth to BPAY from a credit card account how would phone banking detect that paying a Qantas account with a credit card is not possible? Is there some sort of blocking involved?

I only have rewards linked to Amex credit card not to any of the Commonwealth credit cards. I know it is not possible to use BPAY from a direct Amex card but is it possible to use BPAY from a bank issued Amex credit card?

For those that have rewards linked to other credit cards it may well be worth a try to see if you can pay a Qantas account with BPAY and earn points in the process!

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

BPAY is not available in NZ?

Should be easy for you. Get on the internet and open an Australian savings account with any bank, transfer some funds into it and then use internet banking to pay for airfares.

Not that simple. Charges for international transfers at my bank cost more than the CCSF I would be saving. Of course I could fund multiple tickets with a single transaction, but then I'd either be losing interest on the funds or paying unneccessary (Australian) tax.

 

[jakeseven7]

I was paying a bill the other day using Commonwealth phone banking and noticed that you can use BPAY to pay a bill using a credit card account. Now I have never used this option, only ever used BPAY from a statement account or passbook account.

My question is if the option is available from Commonwealth to BPAY from a credit card account how would phone banking detect that paying a Qantas account with a credit card is not possible? Is there some sort of blocking involved?

I only have rewards linked to Amex credit card not to any of the Commonwealth credit cards. I know it is not possible to use BPAY from a direct Amex card but is it possible to use BPAY from a bank issued Amex credit card?

For those that have rewards linked to other credit cards it may well be worth a try to see if you can pay a Qantas account with BPAY and earn points in the process!

You only have the option to use c/c with BPAY if it is allowed by the processing company. e.g You can pay AGL via BPAY c/c (Visa/MC/BC) but not Qantas.

I haven't actually tried with QF but it will be either (a) not allowed when you try to process the payment at the time or (b) rejected later in the process. QF are very clear they do not accept BPAY c/c payments see below:


BPAY is an electronic bill payment service offered by Australia's leading banks, building societies and credit unions as a feature of Internet and phone banking.
You can pay for your online booking using BPAY for e-ticket bookings from Australia made at least 7 days before departure.

To pay by BPAY select the radio button next to BPAY and accept the BPAY conditions of payment. The biller details related to your booking will be provided on the confirmation page.
You then need to pay by internet or phone banking through your financial institution from your cheque or savings account on the day of booking by midnight (local time of your departure city).
Note: BPAY payments made from credit card accounts are not accepted.

 

[JohnK]

Note: BPAY payments made from credit card accounts are not accepted.

Yes I understood the terms mentioned on the QF website.

BPAY must simply be a transaction that said bank (Commonwealth) sends to merchant that bill has been paid. What would be in Commonwealth's system to say that merchant does not accept a BPAY from credit card?

I never thought that BPAY was that sophisticated! I ring up my bank, choose account type, select biller code, select account number to pay, authorise amount to pay, press button for transaction to happen. How would Commonwealth know that I cannot pay QF account with credit card unless there was restrictive programming built in to BPAY? Qantas would have no control!!

I am a programmer and these are not the types of things we program!!!! Accept cash, eftpos, credit card then no problem we acept your payment.

But then again I have heard weirder things happening?

Until someone tries for certain we will never know!!!!

 

[oz_mark]

Yes I understood the terms mentioned on the QF website.

BPAY must simply be a transaction that said bank (Commonwealth) sends to merchant that bill has been paid. What would be in Commonwealth's system to say that merchant does not accept a BPAY from credit card?

I never thought that BPAY was that sophisticated! I ring up my bank, choose account type, select biller code, select account number to pay, authorise amount to pay, press button for transaction to happen. How would Commonwealth know that I cannot pay QF account with credit card unless there was restrictive programming built in to BPAY? Qantas would have no control!!

I am a programmer and these are not the types of things we program!!!! Accept cash, eftpos, credit card then no problem we acept your payment.

But then again I have heard weirder things happening?

Until someone tries for certain we will never know!!!!

I cannot comment on Qantas, but I do know that I have tried to use BPay for credit cards from Westpac, and if the payer doesn't give CC as an option, generally I get an error message. I would assume that as part of the setup of a BPay payer ID, there are flags to determine what sort of payments are accpted.

It is basically just a flag that would need to be set, shouldn't be too strenuous for a programmer to work out. (says the solution architect who always says these things are easy )

 

[NM]

Yes I understood the terms mentioned on the QF website.

BPAY must simply be a transaction that said bank (Commonwealth) sends to merchant that bill has been paid. What would be in Commonwealth's system to say that merchant does not accept a BPAY from credit card?

When using Commonwealth Bank's Netbank system, if you try to pay using BPay to a biller who has elected to only accept payments from a savings/cheque account (i.e. elected not to accept credit cards) you will receive a message indicating this fact.

And BPay biller that has elected to accept BPay transactions with the funds sourced from a credit card is liable for the standard credit card merchant fees associated with the transaction, so some billers choose not to accept credit cards.

 

[JohnK]

I cannot comment on Qantas, but I do know that I have tried to use BPay for credit cards from Westpac, and if the payer doesn't give CC as an option, generally I get an error message. I would assume that as part of the setup of a BPay payer ID, there are flags to determine what sort of payments are accpted.

It is basically just a flag that would need to be set, shouldn't be too strenuous for a programmer to work out. (says the solution architect who always says these things are easy )

Yes mark I know the programming would not be difficult but just did not think that it would be so restrictive. I suppose I can understand if merchant was charged a percentage of transaction if BPAY was from credit rather than savings account.

No great deal just wanted to know whether this has happened to anyone before.

 

[straitman]

No great deal just wanted to know whether this has happened to anyone before.

JohnK,

I've seen this before with several other bill payments. I guess I liken it to only allowing payment by certain CC's as this is a known limitation that we often see.

 

[oz_mark]

I spoke to QF today regarding their $4.40 credit card service fee. I was told that it was always there as 1% charge absorbed into the taxes and charges portion of airfare and has now shown separately. But I protested that airfares have not come down and she insisted that this is the case. Alas I do not believe them, and it sounds like they have already been trained what to say when queried about new service fee.

I would like them to point to an example of where the price has come down to reflect the 1% no longer being absorbed in the price. On the sectors I fly they seem to quoting exactly the same numbers as they were a few weeks back.

 

[JohnK]

I would like them to point to an example of where the price has come down to reflect the 1% no longer being absorbed in the price. On the sectors I fly they seem to quoting exactly the same numbers as they were a few weeks back.

The argument was going around in circles and she could not prove to me one routing where the airfare had decreased. All she kept saying was that they sell airfares everyday and they could see the taxes & charges reduced by 1% since May 24th.

To be honest I think airfares have stayed the same and some may have even gone up. A friend booked an airfare SYD-DBO a few weeks ago, after the fuel surcharge increases, and it was just over $108. Looking at the front page of domestic specials on QF website today for SYD it shows SYD-DBO at $109 (actual airfare $108.75) + $4.40 fee for paying by credit card.

It is quite clear that the airfares have increased if you pay by credit card.

 

[thadocta]

ANZ will let you use a credit card for a Bpay transaction where the merchant does not take CC's (such as in this case, with Qantas) but they will treat it as a cash advance, and charge accordingly.

Another one which will not take CC's via Bpay (actually, at all) is the ATO, which is a real pain, I would like to put all of the GST I collect onto my card (to reduce the debt on the card, and therefore my interest bill) and when I lodge my BAS to pay the amount outstanding by using my card.

Dave