Credit Card Billing for ticket purchases

Hello All,

I did a search on this but turned up nothing related. How long after the purchase of a ticket do VS wait to bill your Credit Card.

I've purchased two tickets in the past eight weeks, the first was billed immediately (or very soon after).

However my most recent purchase for a flight in June 06 has yet to appear on my credit card, I bought that ticket a week ago.

I'm off on my travels in a couple of weeks and I'd hate the most recent charge to appear on my card when I'm travelling, I'd rather pay it off beforehand.

Adam

Hi adam

Strangely enough I have just come off the phone to VS. Booked 2 seats to HNL from SFO with Hawaian thru VS and they weren't on my CC statement I always thought that you were billed dtraight away once they received confirmation.

I was told tonight that you won't be billed until the tickets are printed (not e tickets) and they do it in date of departure order.

So you could be billed tommorrow or weeks before your flight

Regards

Paul

Hiya,

well, there are a lot of things which determine when your card gets debited.

If everything is straightforward, ie: no billing address in a different country, no infants in the booking, no miles upgrades added, and the bank not declining your card (not least no schedule changes put through the system just after the time of booking) they tend to run on the 'automatic' system (still manually run at about 100 a time) based upon highest fare paid, gold membership, upcoming date of travel, etc.

If there is anything unusual addded to the mix, or a backlog due to a super sale fare (ie: loads of bookings made within a short space of time) this can be extended, or the tickets may need to go onto a full manual system, needing direct input into each booking to get payment to go through.

Enough techno-babble... what this really means is tickets can be issued at any time up to three days prior to travel (if booked well in advance) and last minute bookings may end up on a full manual system and need to be issued by the airport.

Best way to be sure is to view your flights online, so you can at least tell if there have been any schedule or a/c changes (where a call to the contact centre should sort that out) to keep the booking from sitting on the manual system.

Hope that helps.

Juliet

My CC doesn't normally get debited for weeks...but that suits me fine too!

Hmmm, you would think that a company that has been struggling (like many airlines after 9.11) would want to maximise its cash flow by ensuring immediate settlement of credit card transactions.....it isnt rocket science.

Well I've sent VS Customer Service an email asking if they could hurry things along as I really dont want to be on the road and have a charge appear when I dont know about it (theres no such thing as internet banking in Antigua, hell it was only last year they actually started sending statements).

^VS isn't suffering as far as i know.

So long as the company has your credit card number, it's got your money. Whether it takes it tomorrow or in a weeks time is really neither here nor there.

Well to split hairs I would disagree with that. I have no idea how much VS does in ticket sales in a week. But lets say they wait a week to collect five hundred thousand US. You could have the cash on the short term money market and make a nice additional income.

The company I work for has millions of clients dollars in the bank at any one time, well most of it is on the overnight markets and earns the company a nice additional revenue stream.

I am no economist so I have only a passing understanding of these matters but any company, big or small, that misses the opportunity to have the maximum balance in the bank at any one time is not operating at peak efficiency.

[honey lamb]

I booked tickets on Dec 29 and was a bit miffed when my credit card statement (which closes on Jan 8 or thereabouts) came and they weren't included. It really messed up my budgetting [:(] I am aware however that it can take time for the tickets to come throught but I called the Premier Team as I have had difficulty with VS e-tickets being blocked by me ISP [:(!] I also changed the original booking so that would add to the delay.

The only probelm is I have more money than I bargained for at this point and it's burning a hole in my pocket [:0][:0]

Originally posted by honey lamb
I booked tickets on Dec 29

Well at least you sneaked your booking in just in time to get the online bonus.[y]

[honey lamb]

Well at least you sneaked your booking in just in time to get the online bonus

No I didn't. [:(] I can't book on-line so that pleasure has been denied to me for the last 10/12 trips or so. [:(!][:(!][:(!]

[preiffer]

...and the booking bonus only applied for flights taken before Dec. 31st, as well, didn't it?

Originally posted by Lipstick
So long as the company has your credit card number, it's got your money. Whether it takes it tomorrow or in a weeks time is really neither here nor there.

What would happen if you booked a non-refundable which VS did not charge for immedietly. Would you be able to close the CC in order to avoid payment?

Phil

[mitchja]

Originally posted by BuffyTVS65

Originally posted by Lipstick
So long as the company has your credit card number, it's got your money. Whether it takes it tomorrow or in a weeks time is really neither here nor there.

What would happen if you booked a non-refundable which VS did not charge for immedietly. Would you be able to close the CC in order to avoid payment?

Phil

Even if you cancel a credit card, transactions can still appear afterwards, as the credit card company keeps your credit card number and the account in a 'suspended mode'

I think you do have until your e-ticket has been generated to change your mind for any fare.

Regards

Originally posted by mitchja

Originally posted by BuffyTVS65

What would happen if you booked a non-refundable which VS did not charge for immedietly. Would you be able to close the CC in order to avoid payment?

Phil

Even if you cancel a credit card, transactions can still appear afterwards, as the credit card company keeps your credit card number and the account in a 'suspended mode'

And you would potentially be committing attempted fraud. Once you have cancelled you CC, the credit company will recover further charges by billing you as normal. However if you do not payup promptly they will immidiately move your account to the "recover with extream prejudice" department and slam-dunk your credit rating.

If they don't charge straight away this is great news for me. I booked after my statement due date to make sure i don't pay until mid march - but if they do take as long as people are saying - i may get another month to pay, which means i earn more interest on my money - great.