Hello fodorites,

Your knowledge has been very helpful in planning our trip to Peru for this Sept. By any chance have you guys had problems purchasing off the Star Peru website?

It wants me to use a verified by Visa Credit Card. Is this the only way to purchase off this site?

Thanks so much!

I did not try Star Peru, but I had problems using verified by Visa on LAN. It had to do, I believe, with the website not accepting US credit cards, not because of Verified by Visa. If you have more than one credit card you might try them all, but you just may have to use a Peru-based travel agent or purchase the fares in-country. Once you are in Peru you can pay cash or go to a travel agent.

Just an update. I have two visas, none of which can be "verified by visa". BofA had no idea what that terminology meant. Anyway 45 minutes and a huge headache later: I figured out that the LAN South America Pass only costs $116 more total (two of us going on the trip) than all the Star Peru one-way trips we would have had to purchase. I figure it's worth it to fly on LAN. So just an FYI to anyone flying within Peru to try the LAN South American Pass.

We are going to be in Peru in just a few days. In planning our itinerary, we have hired a private guide recommended to us by another Fodorite. The website offered us the opportunity to pay with a "verified VISA card". Basically that seemed to mean that they had some sort of aggreement with VISA (or a verifying company) to verify our card, and that by using the service, we would have had to pay an extra charge. I can't recall now exactly how much it was - perhaps a percentage of the payment? - but it was enough that we opted to wire the deposit directly to the travel company instead.

Maybe that's what the Star Peru website is referring to.

Here's more info about Verified by VISA -- have not done this myself, but I have read posts from several who have ... http://usa.visa.com/personal/securit...cts/index.html

Verified by Visa is done by the Visa card provider. You might have received mailers about it and tossed them out. It requires an extra password when making an online purchase. While it's sort of pitiful that B of A didn't know anything about it, but not really surprising given the current state of banks.

I don't know anything about Star, but there was no extra charge for using verified by Visa on LAN, it just didn't make any difference. LAN's website wouldn't take either of my Visa cards. For my airpass I had to book online and then call their phone center to pay. They did give me the 3% off for online booking, although I lost the 24-hour cancellation clause.

I think you'll be happy with LAN. The airpass tickets have a fairly high priority on the "bump" order, which came in handy when my flight from Cusco back to Lima was cancelled due to weather the day prior. I got on the first available flight out, which was only a 2 or 3 hour delay.

From what I've gathered. The banks have to be able to have that feature. Apparently BofA is not one of those banks and has no idea about them (at least the 4 people I spoke with didn't). Chase has that feature but I didn't want to open a new Credit Card just to buy airline tickets.

Strange. LAN accepted my Visa for my international flight without problem. However for the airpass I had to call in (still had the 3% online discount but also lost the 24hr cancellation ability).