Adventures in Flight Booking
A few years ago I booked a trip to Malta for a friend’s wedding and decided to add on a quick visit to Dubrovnik. That was my first experience with booking plane tickets on non-US airlines and in foreign currencies. In one sitting I booked a set of flights on Delta in US dollars, a flight on Air Malta in British pounds, one flight each on RyanAir and easyJet both in Euros, and a ferry ticket in Euros. My credit card got flagged for fraud twice within an hour.
Ever since that day, I have gone into every internet purchase in a foreign currency knowing I might have to call my credit card company and explain that yes, I am booking a flight on AirAsia from Macau to Kuala Lumpur in Macau Patacas.
However I recently booked some flights with my friend Amanda, and the experience was baffling. I called her for our phone date to finally book our trip to Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Easter Island, which we have been trying to plan for almost two years now. We filled out all the required spaces, repeatedly having to provide our passport numbers and other vital information. Finally LAN Airlines had all information it could possibly need from us short of our blood types, and we each clicked the “process” button.
Error. I tried my credit card number again. Error. Meanwhile, Amanda wasn’t having any luck with her booking either. I checked my email and the voicemail from the 800 number I ignored, only to find that American Express thought this transaction was fraud. I’m not sure what it was about booking a flight on a major airline in US dollars from Tahiti to Easter Island that concerned them, but easy fix. Amanda still couldn’t get hers to work, and had no fraud warnings from her credit card, so I started the process again to put hers on my card, luckily with no issues.
Since the Easter Island tickets went on my card, she agreed to put both of our Tahiti to Bora Bora tickets on her card. This leg of the trip had to be booked on Air Tahiti in “Tahitian thingies” as we called their currency (XPF or CFP Francs, but that’s no fun) so I braced myself for trouble. We both breathed a sigh of relief when it appeared her credit card was going to work. But then she got this message on her screen:
“Thank you for your interest in purchasing a ticket. This message is to let you know that we will be sending you a fax to let you know that we are considering your request. Once you confirm to us your acknowledgement of our consideration, we will contact you telepathically before mercury is in retrograde. At that time you must cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with a herring. Once we receive proof that the tree was in fact the mightiest in the forest, you must send payment via carrier pigeon in the form of coins only. Then we will have your ticket delivered by the Tahitian Pony Express. We find this simplified process helpful for all parties involved. And swimming is good exercise for the ponies.”
Ok it didn’t actually say that, but the message on the screen did say, “we will be contacting you within 72 hours not including weekends and holidays in order to process your payment and confirm your booking.” And then she got an email stating the exact same thing. Huh? So today Amanda got an email from Air Tahiti and had to click a link to confirm and our tickets were officially purchased, 48 hours later. Seems like an inefficient way of running an airline, but I guess if you’re the only airline flying between the French Polynesian islands you can do whatever you want.
As crazy as this seemed, it can’t be the craziest result of booking a plane ticket, or any other type of transportation for that matter. I’m almost excitedly waiting for the next ridiculous thing. What bizarre experiences have you had with booking transportation?
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March 22, 2011 @ 7:20 AM
Thats crazy! Surely these companies want the business! They’re not going to get it if they make it so difficult to book tickets with them!
I found in Indonesia that you can’t book a last minute flight with any airline unless you have an Indonesian credit card so I thought I’d just book it through a travel agent or at the airport. But oh no, the flight was three times the price if you didn’t pay online! Crazy.
Can’t wait to read about your trip to Bora Bora. I so want to go there!
March 22, 2011 @ 5:50 PM
Wow, good advice about Indonesia! That’s really crazy! Bora Bora isn’t until January so unfortunately it’ll be awhile before I can write about it.
March 22, 2011 @ 3:48 AM
Tahitian gazinks!!
Xoxo!!
March 22, 2011 @ 7:16 AM
Gazinks, crap! Thingies was what Andy & I were calling Turkish money. Oops!
March 22, 2011 @ 11:49 AM
the adventures of flying
March 22, 2011 @ 5:53 PM
Exactly!
March 22, 2011 @ 8:50 AM
Wow. That has only happened to me with rental cars in Europe (the 72 hour wait before confirmation stuff, I mean). The card cancelling because of fraud has happened so many times… sometime i actually call them ahead of time now to let them know 🙂
Sounds like a fun trip!!
March 22, 2011 @ 5:52 PM
I know what you mean, I do sometimes call ahead of time, but LAN was in US dollars so I thought it would be ok. Oh well! I’ll keep that in mind about renting cars in Europe!
March 22, 2011 @ 10:08 AM
Isn’t stress supposed to disappear when you’re on the islands?
March 22, 2011 @ 5:52 PM
Let’s hope so!
March 23, 2011 @ 7:53 PM
Thanks for the heads up on purchasing tickets abroad with a credit card. I’ve only added flights when I’ve been in NZ and there wasn’t a problem. I had notified my card companies before I left the States that I would be overseas in case they saw some odd purchases. Haven’t tried to book a trip from any really exotic locale.
March 23, 2011 @ 10:45 PM
Funny thing is, I was booking the ticket from home and in US dollars! But yes, always a good idea to call the credit card company before traveling overseas or buying in foreign currencies.
March 23, 2011 @ 8:04 PM
Damn that sucks and is crazy. I am glad though that in the end you got your tickets. I am glad you are set getting closer. We need to chat soon, I wanna know how everything is going!!!
xoxo
March 23, 2011 @ 10:46 PM
Hopefully we’ll run into each other on skype one of these days and we’ll catch up 🙂
March 24, 2011 @ 12:57 AM
The only foreign currency I’ve booked in thus far is AUD — not very foreign 🙂 That is craziness, though.
March 24, 2011 @ 7:25 AM
It amazes me which things get flagged & which don’t. Glad you haven’t had any foreign currency problems!
March 24, 2011 @ 10:04 PM
Wow, sounds like an amazing trip and I’m so excited for you!!! I had issues with booking flights on AirAsia online and finally spent literally 1 HOUR on the phone to book our plane tickets with people in Indonesia. I had to spell out every single name, address, date, etc, and I got off the phone completely exhausted!
March 24, 2011 @ 10:11 PM
Thanks Laura! OMG that’s awful!! How much did THAT phone call cost? I’ve had minor issues trying to book on AirAsia but in the end it’s always ended up going through fine. Yikes!
March 25, 2011 @ 3:21 PM
Dang it my computer has been giving me trouble for DAYS and I missed this!!! I love it Ali. Cant wait to see pictures from your trips alllll over! Take care. Cant wait to see you ;-D
March 25, 2011 @ 9:13 PM
Thanks Christina! Can’t wait to see you in June too!!
March 26, 2011 @ 11:39 PM
I’ve had the same experience on Lan booking from WITHIN Chile. How nuts is that?! Most of the time I can’t get it to work on my card that’s in Chilean pesos and have to use a U.S. card. Weird. But I don’t remember any other crazy flight booking experiences, I think I tend to block them out 🙂
Are you stopping through Santiago?! Would love to meet you, even if it’s only for a few hours!
March 27, 2011 @ 12:21 AM
That is really weird! I wonder if their site is just screwy. No, unfortunately not flying through Santiago, we have a roundtrip flight from Tahiti. But hopefully we’ll meet up one of these days!
April 1, 2011 @ 4:07 AM
I haven’t ever had issues with the buying of the tickets – just the bank deciding to cut our card when we got there. 😛
Glad you ladies got it sorted out. I would love to go to Tahiti. Can I fit in your suitcase?
April 1, 2011 @ 7:27 AM
Oh no, that sucks! You wanna squeeze into my 40L backpack, sure! Ha!
April 5, 2011 @ 10:46 PM
How the frustrations of purchasing airline tickets can take the fun right out of planning and booking! Hope the trip goes smoother
April 5, 2011 @ 11:29 PM
Thanks Alisha, I’m sure it will!
April 7, 2011 @ 4:42 AM
Tahiti, Bora Bora, Easter Island, sound amazing, can’t wait to read about it. I’ve had my credit card declined so many times while traveling when I forgot to let them know I would be traveling and have then been in a panic to find a phone, which usually results in a very expensive phone bill to allow the charges to go through, not fun at all. We’re planning a trip to Canada this summer and staying at some B&B and I’ve found a lot of them have a 48 hour policy of getting back to you as well. I guess we’re getting spoiled and expect everything to be instant.
April 7, 2011 @ 8:28 PM
That wait seems so crazy, especially when booking online, you’d think it would go through immediately.