Problem - How to "sight" a credit card in Bangkok QF office?

[IainF]

I have booked a flight from Bkk-BNE and popped down my credit card number for them to use for the extras.

Booking was made, but now they want to sight the card in the BKK office.
Previously, I had shown the card at an Australian office, but they are adament they want to see the card before ticketing.
Is there any easy way to do this?
I only want to book 1 way and obviously, there is no way I can show it to the BKK office until I get there in April, 4 days before I need to fly out.
Any suggestions or has anyone run across this before?

 

[nonpop]

Have you tried the fax or scan/PDF/email option ?
Where I have booked from SIN or BKK this usually does the trick where they need to "sight" the CC.
Haven't done it with QF but other airlines seem ok with this.
They also then want to re verify upon check in

 

[IainF]

And after getting home and having full search ability, I found the older thread on exactly this topic. Seems I am gonna have to cough up more points (25k) for exactly the same seat.

 

[ksthommo]

Try ringing 131313 and explain the situation, I've done it before booking one way flights from Indonesia with no problems.
It's been a while though.

 

[Happy Trails]

Try calling the BKK office direct, the number should be on your booking confirmation.
They may agree to hold the booking until April when you would be able to get there. They've held bookings up to six weeks previously for me.
IME they are usually quite flexible with the timing but adamant about having to turn up at the office.

 

[ozmille]

Try calling the BKK office direct, the number should be on your booking confirmation.
They may agree to hold the booking until April when you would be able to get there. They've held bookings up to six weeks previously for me.
IME they are usually quite flexible with the timing but adamant about having to turn up at the office.

Same here, they have held the booking for close to two months for me but they did not issue the ticket until I went there.

 

[IainF]

Thanks guys, I am still thinking of doing the BKK booking. Might buy a few AA points and book via them.

 

[Aus ATC]

Any idea why this is required? Is it a Thai Government requirement, or the airline's way of stopping the booking of cheaper fares from outside the country?

Could a 3rd party (say a trusted friend) present the card (posted over to them), or does the card owner have to be there to sign something?

 

[Archphoto]

It's a requirement for a lot of airlines here in Asia - although QF &BA are the only two I can think of who require you to front up at the office, other airlines are happy to sight upon check-in. You actually need to sign for your CC to be charged the ticket cost. ie: You aren't charged for the flight until you physically front up.

It's not a Thai government requirement - Bangkok Air, and Cathay Pacific (two name two) are happy for you to show your card at the check-in desk; no card, no flight unless you pay for another seat. . . . .

It's a PITA, but nothing you can do other than call them to ask for an extension on sighting the card; done it on several occasions due to being out of the country, but admittedly, not on such a long time-frame as the OP, and they've been very happy to do so.

 

[blessed11]

Hey,

I have a recently booked a YASA from BKK to SYD. Noticed that I had the same problem that my CC needed to be verified. I called Qantas in Bangkok and they told me to call the Australian office. I then called the Australian office and the very friendly lady told me she needed to just convert the ticket from Thai Bhat to Australian Dollars and she would then be able to issue the ticket. She put me on hold for a few min and then confirmed that the ticket had been issued and I would not need to verify my CC. Received my confirmation via email.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I was told by QF staff overseas (while traipsing into their office) that this because QF doesn't have on-line credit card facilities with a bank in Thailand (or China or the Philippines). This is why the card needs to be sighted.

 

[markis10]

I was told by QF staff overseas (while traipsing into their office) that this because QF doesn't have on-line credit card facilities with a bank in Thailand (or China or the Philippines). This is why the card needs to be sighted.

Absolute bumpkin, JQ do......

 

[Happy Trails]

I then called the Australian office and the very friendly lady told me she needed to just convert the ticket from Thai Bhat to Australian Dollars and she would then be able to issue the ticket. She put me on hold for a few min and then confirmed that the ticket had been issued and I would not need to verify my CC. Received my confirmation via email.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

That is a good result and seems eminently sensible, though I’m sure tried that the first time and was knocked back.
I’ll give it another go next time.

 

[gibspmuh]

I've experienced this issue several times in relation to flying from Jakarta on both paid and classic award redemptions (though strangely when I booked a JASA the payment was processed without me needing to go to the office). Given the issues the International division of Qantas seems to have making a profit you'd think they'd try to make it a little easier to buy a ticket from them.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Absolute bumpkin, JQ do......

yup. And when I raised the JQ issue directly here in Australia their response was 'JQ is a ticketless airline and you are not buying a ticket in the same way as you are for Qantas'

go figure

 

[drron]

Just wondering if the same problem exists ex-JNB.We are looking at JASAs and undecided whether to book returns and then hope we can change later or book 2x oneway so as we know we will get approx the dates we want.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I have not heard of this ex Sth A. However if you go to the QF SthA site and make a dummy booking (ex JNB) a screen will pop up and tell you if you need to have the CC sighted.

 

[extracta]

I was fishing for information on this a month ago and spoke to QANTAS here about this issue on a couple of occasions.

The first person I spoke with seemed familiar with this and said there would be no problem paying by credit card in Australia, it was done due to credit card fraud in Thailand.

The second time I spoke to someone they said it would be ok to pay via credit card in Australia but they would charge me a $60 fee for helping me.

I think that the QF staff here may not be that familiar with this and if you ring a couple of times until you get help it will probably work.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I was fishing for information on this a month ago and spoke to QANTAS here about this issue on a couple of occasions.

The first person I spoke with seemed familiar with this and said there would be no problem paying by credit card in Australia, it was done due to credit card fraud in Thailand.

The second time I spoke to someone they said it would be ok to pay via credit card in Australia but they would charge me a $60 fee for helping me.

I think that the QF staff here may not be that familiar with this and if you ring a couple of times until you get help it will probably work.

My experience is the same. When I was a plat, they could make the booking here for me in Australia no worries. I had to pay the $60 fee (sucks but they wouldn't waive it for me).

When I went to gold (no longer having the premium desk) the res agent said they could not ticket in Australia for me. It was only after I insisted on speaking to a supervisor (and the res agent wasn't going to let me) that the supervisor said it could be done but that 'the res agent was new and couldn't be expected to know about this'.

If I hadn't had the previous experience with the plat line I would have accepted their word for it.

Unfortunately the $60 fee still applied.

As for credit card fraud, they come up with this rubbish the whole time. Funny that CC fraud is NOT an issue for JQ, or CX/KA/RJ/UL or any other host of airlines I have flown out of BKK.

The next one they like to rely on is 'Thai govt regulations require us to sight the card before ticketing'. Also funny how those same regulations don't apply to JQ or CX/KA/RJ/UL or any other host of airlines I have flown out of BKK.

Even if it WAS CC fraud, then one would think any QFF member holding any sort of status should be exempt from the requirement.

 

[JohnK]

Any idea why this is required? Is it a Thai Government requirement, or the airline's way of stopping the booking of cheaper fares from outside the country?

It may not be a Thai Government requirement but I know a number of companies in Thailand, including tour providers, hotels etc, who do not accept credit card details for payment unless the customer is present.

My girlfriend works for a golf booking company and I cannot pay for hotel and golf bookings unless I physically present the credit card at the office.