Attnymom

I am on hold right now with AirBerlin. For some reason, neither my Visa nor my MC will work to purchase plane tickets from Zurich to Vienna. Everytime AirBerlin tries to run my card, it gets rejected. I have already called both credit card companies to give them a "heads up" to expect the charge, and when I call back to inquire why they rejected the charge, they claim they haven't even seen the attempt to charge the card, so they haven't rejected any charges. No one (Visa, MC, AirBerlin) can figure out why my cards won't work (although the lady at AirBerlin said this happens often with American credit cards). Has this happened to anyone else? Is there anything I can do (i.e. any special instructions to my cc companies?) to avoid this in the future? (It got to the point where the AirBerlin rep asked me if I had a friend in Germany who could charge the tickets for me with a German credit card. Unfortunately, I have no friends in Germany!)

Update: the nice lady at AirBerlin figured out a solution (??) She charged my plane tickets 100 euros at a time and that seemed to work. (i.e. She ran 100 euros 4 times instead of 400 euros once). Not sure why that went through but the original 400 euro charge didn't - the total cost of the tickets is below my limit?

If anyone has any ideas on what is going on/why this is happening, I'd love to hear it! It has been a frustrating hour and a half on the phone . . .

Thanks!

Pinchme_iam_dreaming

We used Air Berlin this past Sept to fly from Paris to Munich. I bought the ticket at their website without a hitch. We went on a Fokker 100 non stop for 99 Euro total. The plane was beautiful and half full. they let us sit in business class. It was the best flight we have evr taken.

NeoPatrick

I did run into a problem in Italy when a place told me that 250 euros was the MOST they could charge on a foreign credit card, so we split a charge and put it on two different credit cards. At the time I thought it was similar to the idea that often 250 euros is the most many ATMs will allow you to take out at a time in Italy. That sounds similar to what you're saying happened. But I'm not sure if that's true why the AirBerlin people wouldn't know that.

Attnymom

Pinchme - thanks for the great review of AirBerlin! I am not a "happy flier," so the more comfortable the airline, the better I do : )

NeoPatrick - that sounds like the most likely explanation. It just seems odd that it was rejected before it ever even got to my cc company. It must be a glitch in AirBerlin's system. Good to know though - if it happens again during my travels, I'll know to ask them to split up the charge into segments. Thanks!

Dukey

Always ask them to run it at least a second time. In our case, the person who swiped the card had keyed in the wrong expiration date.

NeoPatrick

Attnymom, maybe you sort of misunderstood me. Those 250 euro limits were set by the local banks or businesses, not my credit card, so there is no reason the request would have gotten to my bank or credit card -- it was refused by the local bank who would be depositing the money.

And yes, I've seen more than one person in Europe key in the wrong expiration date. My card has both a day and a month as well as a year, and of course, they are "backwards" from what they expect or are used to.

Attnymom

NeoPatrick - thanks - I think I understand now!

Regarding getting the numbers wrong, I did have AirBerlin run it several times, and we repeated back and forth to each other all the numbers, etc. . ., so I don't think they flipped any numbers. I guess the key is to know to ask the merchant to run it in smaller amounts if it happens again somewhere else.

Thanks for your replies : )

logos999

Foreign cards are rejected rather frequently by the low cost carriers. i.e. Condor doesn't want my Luxemburgian card. Expedia had the same problem.

hetismij

It may be to do with the length of time it takes them to actually get the dosh when you use a foreign card. Low Cost carriers work on a very tight budget and can't afford to be waiting for a couple of months to actually get their hand on your money. They know it is comin but CC companies hang on to it for as long as possible.
I know several independant shops and restaurants in the Netherlands that no longer accept foreign CCs for this reason.