Refund of card payment fees on involuntary Covid-19 cancellations

[sudoer]

There was some discussion in a recent thread about card payment fees and Qantas not including these with refunds due to Covid-19 cancellations. The fee to pay with a credit card is slightly more than 1%, capped at $22 for domestic/NZ bookings and $120 for international bookings.



In the case of a $3.2k international trip I booked prior to the pandemic, the payment fee equated to $33.10. After the booking was cancelled due to the pandemic, Qantas refunded what I paid minus the $33.10 card payment fee, after the usual 10-12 week wait.

Qantas' Agency Connect page for Card Payment Fees shows that card payment fees can be refunded where a ticket meets three criteria:

All OB fees are consumed at the time of ticket purchase and therefore are not refundable via the automated GDS refund process.

The card payment fee can only be refunded if the ticket is totally unused, is being fully refunded and no cancellation fee applies.

At least 2 business days are required to process the OB fee refund request from the time of the initial refund submission through BSPlink. The timing of the refund of the funds back to the customer's card will vary, depending on your customer’s card issuing institution.

As my ticket met these criteria I called Qantas in late November and requested a refund of the card payment fee. I was put hold for some time for the rep to confirm the refund process with their manager, and shortly after the call, the standard refund template email arrived. The money was received by my card issuer (Citibank) in less than 10 days. As that card has been long cancelled Citibank forwarded the $33.10 to me as a cheque (coughk cheques)

I post this experience as I think it's poor form that Qantas isn't automatically refunding the card payment fee when customers are entitled to it, or even clearly informing them of their entitlement. I expect many people may not remember the exact figure paid for a booking made months prior to receiving a refund, and would be unlikely to notice a 1% difference in what they paid and what they received back.

Any members who've had Qantas bookings cancelled due to the pandemic over the past 9 months may want to go back and check what card payment fees you have paid and not been refunded.

Please keep in mind the call centre will be inundated with calls due to the various border restrictions which have come into play this weekend, so I would suggest holding off calling for a refund until the new year or emailing [email protected] instead and they will get to it when they can.

Partially used tickets or voluntary cancellations where a cancellation fee has been charged aren't eligible for a refund of card payment fees.

 

[astrosly]

I've had tried to chase up refund of 80c credit card fee on a cancelled reward booking. Small amount I know but it is the principle of it, they should refund in full all amounts charged where criteria to do so are met (and it does in my case).

In regard to your suggestion to email [email protected] I did do this and this was the response:
"Thanks for contacting Qantas Frequent Flyer.

Our Qantas Contact Centre are a specialised team who will answer your enquiry.


For your Monetary refund request please call our reservation team.


In the meantime if you require assistance, Qantas Contact Centre can be contacted on 13 13 13 option 1 or via our Feedback form on qantas.com. "

 

[Jean Prouvaire]

I've had some fares refunded this year, excluding the credit card fee. And while I sometimes also dig in over trivial amounts on a matter of principle (so I can relate, astrosly), in this case I decided to live and let live. In other words - I figured it wasn't worth the inevitable aggravation it would cause me.

 

[sudoer]

I figured it wasn't worth the inevitable aggravation it would cause me.

Completely understandable. I wouldn't have gone to the trouble for a few dollars but thought $33 was worth a phone call.

No judgement here on whether or not someone chooses to apply for a card payment fee refund, but given it's not automatic I think everyone deserves to know when they are entitled to one.

 

[astrosly]

I've had some fares refunded this year, excluding the credit card fee. And while I sometimes also dig in over trivial amounts on a matter of principle (so I can relate, astrosly), in this case I decided to live and let live. In other words - I figured it wasn't worth the inevitable aggravation it would cause me.

Yeah, I'm not going to pursue it any further as I don't want to waste too much time on it . I sent the email, got the cookie cutter rebuff response and then forwarded to [email protected] and left it at that. Let you know if I do see the cash but I'm not going to sweat it.

When the missing balance was about $4 I did call to have it refunded and no problems got it a couple of days later.

 

[albatross710]

I'll give this a shot after this current Christmas reshuffle.

 

[Kangol]

I did this (called) last week and got the cc fee back in 2 days. P1 though.

 

[Plutonus]

When I requested a refund for flights, I also asked for the card fee to be refunded. I duly waited 12 weeks, and of course received a refund for the flights only.

I then complained to NSW Fair Trading that Qantas didn't refund the card fees. Qantas refunded them two days after Fair Trading contacted them. Much less aggravating than calling the Qantas call centre.

 

[sudoer]

Qantas seems to be automatically refunding card payment fees now, or at least that's my experience of an involuntarily cancelled QFi award that I've just received a refund for.

 

[Mattg]

Qantas seems to be automatically refunding card payment fees now, or at least that's my experience of an involuntarily cancelled QFi award that I've just received a refund for.

Good to know.

Virgin Australia specifically says on its website that card payment fees won't be refunded.