Update on this.
On Wednesday night I booked flights SYD-MEL and MEL-PER and yesterday I booked an additional flight PER-SYD.
An authorisation was obtained from my credit card at the time of each booking and each fare appeared as a pending transaction.
This morning I awoke to find all three had been charged again, so the pending transactions remained, and three duplicate, finalised transactions had appeared.
On this occasion, after spending a lot on French food, wine and clothes during my recent holiday in New Caledonia, it pushed my credit card over the limit.
So the card would have been useless for 10 days, until the pending transactons "dropped off".
These 10 days would have included the trip I had just booked!
I called the Commonwealth Bank to obtain the transaction numbers so I could call QF and ask - insist - they fax the CBA requesting that the pending charges be cancelled.
However this wasn't necessary. The CBA call centre staff member said this was a known problem with QF and they had been doing it for about 2 years.
Clients call so frequently that they had set up an expedited process. By the time she finished explaining this, she had removed the pending transactions.
So if this happens to anyone else, don't call QF, who don't care. Call your bank, who may be able to help.
