Hello, I have recently been on a Tour with a single agency ‘specialised’ Travel Agent who quoted me some flight costs. I made my selection and paid him by debit card. When the e-ticket arrived I found that I had been charged $70 for the use of his credit card payment to them, whose details I subsequently had to change to my own details.
This I had never experienced before by both large and small Travel Agencies I had travelled with. I raised this with him but he just glossed over it and said that I could just pay the balance by debit card as I had previously done. as I had already paid $1,000s, I certainly could not afford to cancel out. I subsequently found that many in the group did not purchase their flight tickets and insurance from him as I had done.
I would appreciate your views on this, to me, ‘unusual?’ practice.
Mary.
Was the $70 the agent’s fees for the booking or a card surcharge?
What was the total value of the booking?
If the charge was a card payment surcharge and it was less than 2-3% of the total value (payment made was in the order of $2400-3000 or more), then $70 could be reasonable. Some non-bank point of sale systems charge around 2.2% for card transactions, irrespective if it is a credit or debit card.
Card surcharges are lawful providing they represent the actual cost to the travel agent/business for the presentation of the card. You can possibly ask the agent what the percentage surcharge for card transactions are. If they are more than 2-3%, then you may have grounds to take it further.
While a business isn’t required to advise of card surcharges, most businesses do as it allows customers to choose what payment method best suits them, such as to minimise fees and charges.
More info on card surcharges can be found here:
Thank you phb.
i. It was explicitly stated on the e-tkt from the airline that it was a credit card fee.
ii. AUD 8982.00 excluding taxes, AUD 10432.18 including taxes.
As I have never been charged this fee by any other Travel Agents i.e HelloWorld, Travel Associates, and I always paid them by debit card.
This agent did not advise me of this charge on my fare even if I paid it to him by debit card. So then I would have been double charged if I had paid him by credit card and then he paid the Airway by credit card, which is normal?
Lesson to be learnt is always check the airlines sites and book directly with the airline if their fare is cheaper?
Mary.
It looks like it isn’t the travel agent who applied the surcharge. It appears your card was used to book directly with the airline… the travel agent used the card details you provided to make payment. The airline then applied the surcharge to the booking being made. This is possibly why the agent didn’t advise of the surcharge…and the agent would not have been able to use alternative payment methods since the agent made payment direct from you, on your behalf.
The card surcharge works out to be about 0.7% which is reasonable.
This could be why your card was used to reduce surcharges. If the airline and the travel agent both applied surcharge to card use, then yes, you could have been up for two lots of surcharges.
They might be, but sometimes agents can see seat price codes/classes not available through the public airline websites. On the flip side, the airlines they book you on might not be the cheapest (e.g. they might book Qantas rather than Jetstar first example).
Notwithstanding this, you would still be up for the card surcharge if there weren’t alternative airlines (which were cheaper /didn’t charge surcharges) and the airline you are booked had no other suitable payment options.
Thank you phb.
The Agent, unbeknownst to me beforehand, used his own credit card, not mine as I had paid him directly by debit card.
I have not checked with the airline [Qatar, who were excellent,] directly whether payment for flights must be paid by credit card with surcharge. Unlikely?
Previously I have checked Airline web-sites beforehand and Travel Agents have matched or reduced their price.
Thanks for all the enlightenment.
QATAR have a range of payment options:
But, our experience is travel agents use bank transfers and credit cards as payment methods. Unfortunately bank transfers aren’t an option for Australia.
They typically don’t use debit cards. Credit cards are used as it gives them time to have funds in their account from the booking party before credit card payment is made.
The QATAR website indicates that in some countries surcharges are added, where it is legal to do so. I haven’t tried booking a flight to see if surcharge applies to bookings in Australia, but assume they would apply as surcharges are legal here.
I am a bit confused. Are you indicating that the agent paid the flights by credit card which incurred a surcharge, then passed the surcharge onto you (total price of flights you paid included the QATAR surcharge). This is reasonable to pass on the surcharge to you. Agents will also pass on taxes, commissions, booking fees and other fees/charges incurred as part of the booking.
Did you pay an additional surcharge for payment to the agent using your debit card?
I assume you were happy with the price offered by the agent for the flight and only found out about the QATAR surcharge through the e-tickets issued directly to you. If you were happy with the agent’s quoted prices, if you hadn’t known a surcharge had been applied you would be still happy and ‘none the wiser’. In such case, knowing that a surcharge had been paid by the agent and passed onto you isn’t overly relevant. Yes, you possibly could have saved the $70 if you had booked your own flights and used a payment method which had lower/no surcharges. But, this would require your own effort to book and to liaise with the agent to ensure it slotted into your ground travel plans.
Agents also add their own commissions to bookings. These commission may be for the total travel package value or parts of the package (for example on accommodation but not on car hire). Some agents use commissions embedded into booking platforms as payment for services. Others charge an upfront service fee.
Very many thanks phb for your much appreciated very detailed and comprehensive response.
YES, the Travel Agent paid the Airline Company with his credit card with the surcharge as well as all the other fees and charges passed to me. NO additional surcharge on my debit card payment for the flight was paid to the Travel Agent.
CORRECT, if I hadn’t known a surcharge had been applied, I would be ‘none the wiser’.
Your knowledge on this subject is really quite awesome and enlightening. I will in future use your imparted knowledge to my future bookings.
Very many thanks.
In 2019 we had 2 tours for 2020 booked in Europe by credit card. Yes, it was more expensive and I begrudged it at the time. In 2021 when we cancelled both trips due to covid (no choice) the credit card insurance paid for the 30% refund that the tour companies did not pay (they paid 70%). They even paid the credit card surcharge. So, I am grateful I paid by credit card. We booked directly with the overseas companies, one English and one American. At the time we thought we booked with a Croatian company and a Scandinavian one.
