Credit card charge question

chris85

I recently booked flights to the UK for a few months time and I had to pay be credit card so anyway there was an extra charge for using the card which I accept. They said the charge was €6 per person, so it was €12 extra for the two of us.

My question is it legal to charge a CC fee per person when there is only one transaction being processed? So if i had ten people going they would get €60 extra while still only processing one transaction for the credit card.

Nody

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: You agreed to the terms and conditions of the sale including the price (i.e. charges applied). They could have stated that because your name started with a F you got to pay double on top of it and also be perfectly legal with it as long as it is clearly stated.

chris85

I realise that they were stated and i booked with them as they were still cheaper than all the rest and flying into the airport i wanted.

I was just thinking that they advertised it as a transaction charge when there is no extra transaction due to more people flying just the one transaction.

It more just a query about it, its only a few euro but its just something i was thinking.

Del2005

They are bringing in a law soon that means that the price you see is the price you pay when booling airline tickets, I think it's coming in soon but have no idea when. But yeah if they tell you they are chaging X and you agree then you've no real compaints.

foggy_lad

Del2005 wrote: »

They are bringing in a law soon that means that the price you see is the price you pay when booling airline tickets, I think it's coming in soon but have no idea when. But yeah if they tell you they are chaging X and you agree then you've no real compaints.

this applies in the uk only as in ireland there is already law in place concerning pricing of flights but it does not stretch to credit card charges os security and airport surcharces

Del2005

foggy_lad wrote: »

this applies in the uk only as in ireland there is already law in place concerning pricing of flights but it does not stretch to credit card charges os security and airport surcharces

I thought it was an EU law they are bringing in to include all costs, but yeah I'm sure there'll still be a way for them to add extras.

Steve

Del2005 wrote: »

I thought it was an EU law they are bringing in to include all costs, but yeah I'm sure there'll still be a way for them to add extras.

I heard that as well recently. Not sure where. All advertised prices must include or clearly state any 'extras'.

chris85

It did say there was a charge of €6 per person but i just think its a bit annoying as its only one transaction but yet the charge is per person.

I understand that I agreed to these conditions and all that as they were still the cheapest than all the rest i checked and there are worse airlines there for charges like this.

Sam Vimes

unfortunately it's legal. Companies like ryanair make themselves look cheaper by classifying everything possible as an extra. They get away with it because it's possible that someone somewhere won't be availing of all there optional extras. Hence the joke where a ryanair plane decompresses and a recorded voice says "insert 1 euro for air mask"

but if you have your head about you and realise all the tricks, ryanair is usually the cheapest. And they're usually the cheapest even with a few tricks thrown in tbh

chris85

Sam Vimes wrote: »

unfortunately it's legal. Companies like ryanair make themselves look cheaper by classifying everything possible as an extra. They get away with it because it's possible that someone somewhere won't be availing of all there optional extras. Hence the joke where a ryanair plane decompresses and a recorded voice says "insert 1 euro for air mask"

but if you have your head about you and realise all the tricks, ryanair is usually the cheapest. And they're usually the cheapest even with a few tricks thrown in tbh

Its not ryanair by the way, but i get why many would think that. The airline is actually BMI, and suprised about the surcharge as they already include baggage as part of their price seen, no extra for that. Was a few quid cheaper than ryanair when factoring in baggage and also i needed to fly to heathrow and ryanair dont. still was good price anyway.

Alun

They all do it AFAIK.

The thing that annoys me is it clearly isn't actually a CC transaction charge, in the sense that it reflects what the CC company are charging them to put the transaction through them at all since it only appears as one transaction on your CC bill. It also clearly doesn't cost them twice as much to process if there are two people on the flight, or 4 times as much if you're booking a return flight as well. Even if it was not a reflection of what the CC company are charging them, and is supposedly just a charge based on internal processing costs, the same applies. And anyway, it's impossible to book a flight any other way, so what possible sense does it make to charge it separately. It'd like a shop charging you a separate "buying charge" .. in other words, nonsense.

In other words it's "just another charge" justified by claiming it's a CC transaction charge which it clearly isn't.