AA not accepting USD payment on Aussie credit card over the phone-->CC fees

[t-bug]

Bought some AA miles and paid online with 28deg m/c no problems. However recently when I tried to pay for an award flight fees (tax, booking etc) the AA agent (US) said I live in Australia and they can't process my CC and to call the Aus. AA number to pay.

Called the Aus #, they took my CC details and said everything was fine and I would receive an email with the ticket in a couple of days. A few hours later got a call from Aus AA and they said there couldn't process the CC transaction in USD and would have to be transacted in AUD and gave me the AUD equivalent which was ~15% more than what I would have paid with my 28deg card (no foreign transaction or currency conversion fee). I pressed the issue but the agent was adamant that there was no other way and i reluctantly agreed to incur the "AA currency conversion?" charges. Was only ~$30 in this instance and i didn't want to risk the possibility of my award booking messing up.

I've browsed the AA forum and found "solutions" around using non-US credit cards, using a "US Address". Are people using this workaround actually putting US addresses, zip code and US phone numbers in their AAdvantage accounts? And if so, what are the risks with ticketing, communications and the such?

I have my Aus address etc in my AAdvantage account and I guess that's how the agent was able to establish "non-US" card. Is there an update of what people are doing now with non-US cards to avoid excessive fees?
Cheers.

 

[Mattg]

I have also found that they will only put through taxes associated with award bookings in AUD. Have also got the call saying my card didn't work and try again. I find it rather sneaky as, as you noticed, they convert the currency very much in their favour. But I haven't personally found a way around it.

I would also be interested to hear if someone has a solution.

 

[NM]

I have ALWAYS been charged in US$ using my Australian credit cards (28 Degrees and Amex in the past) when making AAdvantage award bookings. But I also NEVER use the AA Australian phone number. If not doing it all on-line, then I only call the USA number and have never had any unresolvable problems making the payment using Aussie credit card charged in US$. The only time they have had problems processing the payment is when they try to use my 4-digit postcode in the billing address. When they add a leading zero to make it 5-digit postcode it always processes just fine, in US$ using my Aussie credit cards. I have done this many times over many years, with the most recent being about 5 weeks ago.

 

[smit0847]

How do you know what the USD amount is if you have been charged in AUD?

 

[t-bug]

How do you know what the USD amount is if you have been charged in AUD?

Always rang the AA number in US for my bookings and got from them the USD amount for taxes when they directed me to the Aus AA to make the payment.

 

[t-bug]

I have ALWAYS been charged in US$ using my Australian credit cards (28 Degrees and Amex in the past) when making AAdvantage award bookings. But I also NEVER use the AA Australian phone number. If not doing it all on-line, then I only call the USA number and have never had any unresolvable problems making the payment using Aussie credit card charged in US$. The only time they have had problems processing the payment is when they try to use my 4-digit postcode in the billing address. When they add a leading zero to make it 5-digit postcode it always processes just fine, in US$ using my Aussie credit cards. I have done this many times over many years, with the most recent being about 5 weeks ago.

Thanks NM. When you've made the payments were the AA agents aware that you were using an Aussie card? eg by looking at your address/phone details in your AAdvantage account?

They knew I live in Australia (told me so) and said they couldn't process my CC and to call the Aus. AA number to pay.

 

[Gold Member]

NM, the only official exception for AA US to accept an Aussie CC is for EXPs. But your profile says you are Plat only... And they don't even accommodate OWE equivalents. So I'm a little bemused like others.

For reference, a recent award booking I ticketed through our Fiji *cough Australia* AA office had a 50% markup on FX! Wasn't sure if I'd accidentally been transferred to QF ticketing somehow :shock: Or maybe just some extremely volatile intraday FX movements that I hadn't noticed.

 

[The Flying Brick]

I came across the same problem with AA not accepting my Amex over the phone for an EY flight and had to call the Australian number to make payment BUT the very same day an online redemption for a couple of QF flights through AA went straight through on the same Amex.

Didn't check the forex charges but I will now go and see what the USD$53 actually converted to.

 

[DC3]

Payment through AA.com (US site) using my AU credit card has always been accepted when I pay on-line. I have never had a reason to make a phone booking. Then again, I have only ever booked awards based on the on-line availability.

Are you contacting the call-centre for something that does not let you book on-line?

 

[t-bug]

Payment through AA.com (US site) using my AU credit card has always been accepted when I pay on-line. I have never had a reason to make a phone booking. Then again, I have only ever booked awards based on the on-line availability.

Are you contacting the call-centre for something that does not let you book on-line?

LAN flights not bookable on AA site. Cheers.

 

[The Flying Brick]

Payment through AA.com (US site) using my AU credit card has always been accepted when I pay on-line. I have never had a reason to make a phone booking. Then again, I have only ever booked awards based on the on-line availability.

Are you contacting the call-centre for something that does not let you book on-line?

EY, CX and many other partners flights can't be booked online through AA - the only way to book is on the phone and the US agents are usually better finding availability online than the 'Australian' call centre.

 

[auriga]

I find it quite incredible that they can have issues processing an international credit card. It is 2015!

 

[DC3]

The AA USA website processes AU credit card payments on-line without any issues. I wonder what the problem could be with processing the details by phone?

 

[ecst]

I somehow managed this today, it must be just pure luck. Called about an hour ago and got a very competent agent who mumbled something about "not accepting Oz credit cards, call Oz centre" several times. Mind you this must be like 5am Central Time USA.

Anyway what assisted my case was that I had a booking on hold and made some changes which required some additional points, which I was short of. I was about to place the new one on hold when she asked me if I was interested in ticketing it. I discussed our options and it seemed best that I buy the new points on my PC while she waited for 3 mins (using my Oz credit card). Once done - being the wise and competent agent she was, she realised no point shuffling me around so she said "let's try your credit card" (as she could see I just used it to buy miles".

First try- we went off my exact profile address and it didn't work, so I requested that she just el-Segundo my postcode with an extra zero ... and all done!

Probably stating the obvious, I'm sure some of you have also encountered a similar situation ordering stuff online from the States where it requires a five-digit postcode. Same system I reckon... (!)

 

[serfty]

...
First try- we went off my exact profile address and it didn't work, so I requested that she just el-Segundo my postcode with an extra zero ... and all done!

Probably stating the obvious, I'm sure some of you have also encountered a similar situation ordering stuff online from the States where it requires a five-digit postcode. Same system I reckon... (!)

Yep - even online - I purchased a Business PER/MEL award this week and did not event stop to recosider automatically using 03197 as my [-]post[/-]zip code.

 

[Pushka]

We used Aus credit card online last week with no issues. No zero in front.

 

[ecst]

Pure gold. Yeah just adding datapoints for the folks who've been led here by Google (Alphabet???)

 

[moa999]

Just hit a speedbump on this method, but resolved itself (but things have changed recently)

Had some shell credit to use up..
And after a bit of back and forth due to AAs stupid multi-city pricing engine HNL-PTY-JFK about US$1000 more than HNL-PTY and PTY-JFK I managed to book the first leg using the credit plus a few $s, the 0 trick got my Aussie card accepted.

However then went to book the PTY-JFK section on the US site.
But when you change Billing Address for card to Australia - it warns you that your bank my charge -- then boots you out to the street saying you must use the AA Australian website...


I tried Paypal as well - but it rejected this due to an Aussie credit card.
So put it on Hold for the moment.

Email received with on Hold.
Click through to Payment.... Success!

 

[dfcatch]

Just hit a speedbump on this method, but resolved itself (but things have changed recently)

Had some shell credit to use up..
And after a bit of back and forth due to AAs stupid multi-city pricing engine HNL-PTY-JFK about US$1000 more than HNL-PTY and PTY-JFK I managed to book the first leg using the credit plus a few $s, the 0 trick got my Aussie card accepted.

However then went to book the PTY-JFK section on the US site.
But when you change Billing Address for card to Australia - it warns you that your bank my charge -- then boots you out to the street saying you must use the AA Australian website...


I tried Paypal as well - but it rejected this due to an Aussie credit card.
So put it on Hold for the moment.

Email received with on Hold.
Click through to Payment.... Success!

The trick is that you leave it selected as United States, you don't select Australia.

 

[moa999]

The trick is that you leave it selected as United States, you don't select Australia.

Gotcha. But still filling in the remaining of the address properly.