Unauthorized credit card charge by airline
 

I made a reservation using my F miles in Marco Polo/Asiamiles (the FF program of Cathay Pacific). They charged me airport taxes and the fuel surcharge and this charge showed up on my credit card bill.

Upon checking my credit card statement, I discovered a seperate, unauthorized charge made by Cathay Pacific on my card. It's a smaller amount, but I am very upset and concerned as I never gave the authorization. Cathay just imposed this charge on their own just because they had my credit card information in hand. This is dangerous.

The Marco Polo/Asiamiles program is already a lousy one and Cathay is trying hard to make their reputation even worse.

What did they do when you called them and asked about it?

Keith

Whenever I use ff miles, I am always charged the taxes plus a processing fee (like $15), separate line items. This is a different ff program from yours...perhaps that is what they are doing?

what is the nature of the charge? is there a description on your bill?
it's likely that it is part of your fare, or processing fee as joan mentioned. believe me, there is probobly a reason.

1. I asked them about this and they said it's a "foreign exchange adjustment" charge. When I asked for the supervisor, the call was conveniently hung up.

I think it's unfair to charge such a fee because airlines don't give us a credit back when oil prices/exchange rates change to our favor. No matter what, this charge was not authorized by me.

2. There is no processing fee for Cathay. I know that there is a processing fee for, say, United if you use the phone or redeem a ticket on a non-UA flight.

Where are you located and in what currency did Asia Miles put the charge through? I've only redeemed tickets through Asia Miles once and the charge was put through to my credit card in HKD so the conversion to USD was processed by my credit card. I believe that since last year credit card issuers have been required to post any foreign currency conversion fees separately from the amount of the actual charge (before it was just buried in the charge). Are you absolutely sure that it's not just the foreign conversion fee charged by your credit card? If that's not it, then I don't know what it could be.

I haven't had any customer service issues with Asia Miles, but my participation in the program is limited. I was pleasantly surprised at the ease of booking/changing award reservations and their generous award hold period. They also sent my tickets via DHL to my US address at no extra charge.

It may be that the amount is too small to bother with, but if you want to pursue it on principle you can dispute the charge with your cc company. The airline will have to justify the charge, including specifying exactly what it was for. You can call your CC aboout this but to dispute the charge will require something in writing.

I booked a flight with Qantas on the phone. When I did, they told me a seperate service charge would show up on my credit card.

Whenever I charge anything from any country except my home country, I get a service charge levied by my credit card company. That's probably where this charge came from.

Thanks for the replies. I called the CC company which vehemently denied that they imposed that charge.

barkinpark,
did you see the service fees listed on their website? Sheesh! There's alot of fine print! Go here and check out service fees...

http://www.asiamiles.com/en/site/ter...609,00.html#19