Avoiding the Aer lingus transaction fee

aidz · 13-11-2010 2:27pm #1

Hi,
Previously used my visa electron in the form of virtual entropay card to book flights on both ryanair and aer lingus transacation free. Ryanair closed this last december.
Have continued using it for aer lingus this year... but tried to book just there and it wouldnt allow me...
anyone else having similar problems?? or have they too closed this method?? (just checked my last transaction and it was may 2010)

undo · 13-11-2010 7:44pm

Yes, Visa Electron has been attracting fees for a while now. There appears to be no more way around the transaction fee with Aer Lingus (I wonder whether this is legal).

aidz · 14-11-2010 11:43am

According to their website, they still accept visa electrons as a method of free transactions.
However, i wonder have they closed the door on the virtual cards (like entropay). i know flybe have done this.

i was just wondering had anyone else avoided the fee recently...

another native · 14-11-2010 5:13pm

A similar query from a reader appeared on Monday 8th November in the Irish Times PriceWatch Page. Conor Pope gave the following reply: "We contacted the airline to find out more and received this less than illuminating response:"

"Aer Lingus sends details of payment card transactions through our Payment Service Provider (PSP) and on to the banks. They (PSP) identify the card type to ensure that they comply with the individual card schemes. Visa Electron cards that are recognised by our Payment Service Provider are exempt from charges."

thesmiler · 19-11-2010 8:11am

So is there any known way to get around the Aer Lingus handling fee now?
Very annoying since I just loaded the Entropay card to pay for my Aer Lingus flight.

Why was Ryanair forced to change but Aer Lingus wasn't?

undo · 19-11-2010 11:25am

thesmiler wrote: »

Why was Ryanair forced to change but Aer Lingus wasn't?

The same rule applies to both airlines: There must be a way to pay without incurring a transaction charge. They both chose the most obscure cards they could find so as few people as possible get to avoid the charge. With Aer Lingus, Visa Electron is the card to have. For Ryanair, it is a Mastercard Prepaid.

Entropay never was advertised as a Visa Electron. It just happened to be recognized by Ryanair's system as one, most likely in error. So what they did was to fix an error. The theoretical possibility of using a genuine Visa Electron still remains. But good luck getting one of these in Ireland...

With Aer Lingus of course, it is much easier as the Dublin Gift Card is a Mastercard Prepaid.

thesmiler · 19-11-2010 12:07pm

undo wrote: »

The same rule applies to both airlines: There must be a way to pay without incurring a transaction charge. They both chose the most obscure cards they could find so as few people as possible get to avoid the charge. With Aer Lingus, Visa Electron is the card to have. For Ryanair, it is a Mastercard Prepaid.

Entropay never was advertised as a Visa Electron. It just happened to be recognized by Ryanair's system as one, most likely in error. So what they did was to fix an error. The theoretical possibility of using a genuine Visa Electron still remains. But good luck getting one of these in Ireland...

With Aer Lingus of course, it is much easier as the Dublin Gift Card is a Mastercard Prepaid.

Wait - as you mentioned before Ryanair wants Mastercard prepaid, so I guess you mean Ryanair here, and Aer Lingus above.

So that answers my question - quite honestly, for Irish residents there is currently no way around the handling fee for Aer Lingus, correct?

undo · 19-11-2010 12:18pm

thesmiler wrote: »

Wait - as you mentioned before Ryanair wants Mastercard prepaid, so I guess you mean Ryanair here, and Aer Lingus above.

With Ryanair, the situation is 100% clear: Mastercard Prepaid and you pay €0 transaction fee. Aer Lingus had me confused for a moment. The way I thought it was and wrote it first, any card now attracts a fee. This seems to be wrong. There still is no fee when you use a Visa Electron. Unfortunately, Entropay is no longer recognized as one.

quite honestly, for Irish residents there is currently no way around the handling fee for Aer Lingus, correct?

There are some online offers. I think UK post offices sell Visa Electrons - so a trip up North might work. But there is no easy and resonably affordable way I would say.

aidz · 25-11-2010 12:52pm

undo wrote: »

The same rule applies to both airlines: There must be a way to pay without incurring a transaction charge. They both chose the most obscure cards they could find so as few people as possible get to avoid the charge. With Aer Lingus, Visa Electron is the card to have. For Ryanair, it is a Mastercard Prepaid.

Entropay never was advertised as a Visa Electron. It just happened to be recognized by Ryanair's system as one, most likely in error. So what they did was to fix an error. The theoretical possibility of using a genuine Visa Electron still remains. But good luck getting one of these in Ireland...

With Aer Lingus of course, it is much easier as the Dublin Gift Card is a Mastercard Prepaid.

they were recgonised as a visa electron with aer lingus, ryanair and easyjet. Ryanair then dumped electrons for mastercards. Easyjet still accept the entropay ones (booked a flight last week using it). Aer Lingus have closed the door on it though (entropay method) in the last few months...

So if there any way a ROI resident can now get around the charge from the part taxpayer owned airline???

undo · 25-11-2010 1:06pm

There is a website suggesting that you can get this https://www.lloydsbankinternational.es/es/bancaPersonal/tarjetas/Debito/ without being resident in Spain. It is a major pain to have to go to such lengths though for sure.

Sysmod · 02-12-2010 6:20pm

Aer Lingus say
"We have activated our online free change and refund request facilities for customers who are affected by these cancellations."

But if you change a day ahead because the forecast is bad but they have not actually cancelled the flight yet, too bad. 112CHF=89 euro instead of the 2x35=70 euro advertised.

Bah.

(Sorry for replying to a post rather that starting a new one but I could see no button marked "New Thread" or "Post".)

Stinicker · 03-12-2010 9:56pm

Would wirecard work for Ryanair? and maybe Aer Lingus?

undo · 06-12-2010 5:46pm

Wirecard should work for both Aer Linugs and Ryanair. But it will not save you any fees as it is neither a Visa Electron nor a MasterCard Prepaid, sorry.

Stinicker · 06-12-2010 7:58pm

undo wrote: »

Wirecard should work for both Aer Linugs and Ryanair. But it will not save you any fees as it is neither a Visa Electron nor a MasterCard Prepaid, sorry.

Are you sure I understood it was classed as a Mastercard Prepaid? I have a normal credit card anyway but would transfer money to the wirecard to save the €5 booking fee!

undo · 06-12-2010 8:31pm

Aye, some sources indicate it might work as a MasterCard Prepaid. There are some fees associated with topping up your wirecard thought. So the cheapest option remains a Dublin City Gift Card at €0.00 fees.

Stinicker · 06-12-2010 8:55pm

undo wrote: »

Aye, some sources indicate it might work as a MasterCard Prepaid. There are some fees associated with topping up your wirecard thought. So the cheapest option remains a Dublin City Gift Card at €0.00 fees.

Yes there is a €1 fee for loading money into it via an international bank transfer (I do this with my online banking). However it can take anything upto a week to transfer this money so to transfer instantly using a normal credit card is charged at 3% of the value loaded to the wirecard.

I have a weekly topup limit of €150 on mine so if I wanted to buy multiple flights costing more than €150 I would need to drip feed the money in a few weeks before. I used to use Wirecard alot before I got my BOI Credit however since I got my BOI I don't use the Wirecard anymore and would only use it now for avoiding the €5 Credit Card Surcharge! A family of four flying Ryanair return could save €40 this way which may be even more than the cost of one of the flights!

Kotek Besar · 07-08-2011 9:07am

Heads up to anyone trying to avoid Aer Lingus' handling fee by using Entropay.

I found yesterday, after hours of trying to understand why, that basically Entropay Virtual Visa cards, denominated in GBP, are no longer recognised by Aer Lingus as Visa Electron cards.

I tried two Entropay Virtual Visa card numbers (after having created a second card number) to see if the issue was to do with the provisioning of the first card number. Still the same message on the Aer Lingus website "Your card number cannot be processed online. If you are sure your details have been entered in correctly, please contact your card company."

I called Aer Lingus, as I wondered whether their website was playing up. They assured me it wasn't.

I contacted Entropay support, they just said "EntroPay Virtual Cards are categorized, and branded by VISA as the VISA Classic Debit." and told me to select Visa instead of Visa Electron. I replied to Entropay saying that there are many websites and forums that confirm that Entropay Virtual Visa cards that are denominated in GBP are categorised as Visa Electron and not Visa Debit, and that the starting of my card number is 4101 and not 4313. Entropay replied "Please note that it depends on the merchant's payment processor whether it will accept our cards as VISA electron cards. Please note that we have no control over this." Fair enough.

In the end I accepted defeat and transferred more money to my Entropay account, so that I could pay Aer Lingus' €6 per person "handling fee" (and there were 7 of us travelling!). Since I also had to pay Entropay's 4.95% topping up fee, this whole event cost me more than if I had just paid for the flights using my credit card.