The most ridiculous reward booking cancellation fee

[Julesmac]

It would be interesting to run this past the folk at Choice or Consumer Affairs. If you think about how many people change bookings -what a nice little earner. And I bet most of them are not AFF members so probably give up in disgust
Richard Branson has to pay for Necker Island somehow

 

[drron]

Wouldn't use social media.VA have had their chance to rectify it.Time for action.Refer it to Consumer Affairs.If you like copy it to VA and the Airline ombudsman.

 

[medhead]

Interestingly just changed a domestic multicity booking. 50% increase on one flight change, 265% increase on the other. $80 change fee. No credit card fee for the payment.

 

[roby]

Interestingly just changed a domestic multicity booking. 50% increase on one flight change, 265% increase on the other. $80 change fee. No credit card fee for the payment.

Their rules are to charge $30 on any fee above $50 for reward bookings. This is separate from the normal revenue bookings. Unfortunately dealing with Velocity is like dealing with a foreign company based overseas. They have no expectations or regard to the Australian regulatory bodies or Australian laws.

 

[blackcat20]

Why a CC fee for the cancellation charge?Surely the $60 (extortionate though it is) should just be subtracted from the refund of taxes.No CC fee involved.
Definitely worth a referral to Fair Trading authorities.

Just tell them to take the $60 cancellation fee out of the $120 that they owe you. Net result they owe you $60.

You'd think that would be the obvious solution...if they are refusing to deal with it that when then it comes across as though they are trying to gouge more money.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Perhaps this thread should be in the "Ask Velocity Frequent Flyer" sub-forum. It would be nice to actually have VFF take this to management for a resolution as it seems to me their O/S call centre may be making up rules to suit themselves. Are we at all sure they don't get to pocket the fees O/S as this does not sound like an Australian company directive to me?

 

[Lonely Flyer]

Airline company is the biggest offender coming with CC surcharge, and no one can do anything about that, because they just can in this country!!.

I tentatively disagree. The recent bank cases are on point and the Airlines may be on notice. All it needs is one of these law firms that chase "class actions" to get involved and away we go.

 

[bullerdude]

The velocity fare rules page makes zero reference to there being a $30 surcharge for the $60 cancellation fee.

I know there is a mention of the $30 charge on the fees and surcharges pages, but those pages only exist for domestic, short-haul and long-haul - There is no fees and surcharges page for velocity fares that i can easily find.

If there is mention of the $30 hidden somewhere on the VA website then they are in breach of consumer protection law - which would require the fee to be clearly indicated on the velocity fare rules page.

[h=2]Virgin Australia International & Partner Airlines[/h] Fares available to Velocity Members for the purpose of redeeming Velocity Points.
[h=3]In the Air[/h]

Cabin Class	Economy, Premium Economy, Business & First Class.
Flexibility (see ‘General Information’ below for more details)	Name changes Not permitted. Flight Time and Date Changes Permitted, subject to availability Changes to each flight sector must be requested at least 24 hours prior to scheduled departure of that sector Changes are subject to a 7,500 Points or $60 charge per guest per booking. Fare differences may be payable and other restrictions apply, see ‘General information’ below. Routing changes Permitted, subject to availability Changes to each flight sector must be requested at least 24 hours prior to scheduled departure of that sector Changes are subject to a 7,500 Points or $60 charge per guest per booking. Fare differences may be payable and other restrictions apply, see ‘General information’ below
Cancellation and no-shows (see ‘General Information’ below for more details)	Cancellations and refunds are permited prior to the commencement of any travel. Cancellations must be requested at least 24 hours prior to first scheduled departure and refunds are subject to a 7,500 Points or $60 charge per guest per booking. Refunds or re-credit are not permitted once travel has commenced. Guests who check-in, but do not fly will not be eligible for a refund or credit. Exception: Reward Seats on itineraries to, from or via the United States Bookings made at least 7 days prior to departure may be cancelled up to 24 hours after confirmation, without penalty by calling the Membership Contact Centre on 13 18 75.
Payment	Immediate payment required
Velocity Points	Reward Seats do not earn Velocity Points.
Minimum stay	N/A
Maximum stay	12 months
Stopovers	Not permitted.
Children and Infants	Infants (under 2 years) not occupying a separate seat only pay taxes, fees & surcharges. Children (2-11 years) occupying a seat must pay adult fare plus taxes, fees & surcharges.
General Information	All changes and cancellations must be made via the Membership Contact Centre and within their opening hours. Depending upon what fares are available through our Membership Contact Centre, the fare for your new booking may be higher than the original. You must pay any fare difference between the fare for your new booking and the original fare. Your new booking must be for travel on the Virgin Australia network within 12 months of the date that the original ticket was issued (the "OTD"). Any refunds must be obtained within 12 months of the OTD. Changes are permitted subject to Reward Seat availability. Flight upgrades using Points or Complimentary Fare Upgrades cannot be used in conjunction with a Reward Seat.

 

[medhead]

Isn't the $30 the credit card payment fee for international bookings.

 

[OzEire]

My 2c worth.

This type of behavior by a company ought to dissuade customers from booking with Them. Yet, it seems that people continue to flock to VA (tiger, Ezy, Ryan Air, etc) for the headline price alone.

The problem is that this means that the company has no incentive to change/improve or respond to individual pax who complain.... another 5 pax will say nothing or book elsewhere.

Only social media shaming (but crucially the consequential change in booking behavior of the mob if people lose trust in the airline/overcome their price bias) will make VA even notice.

Sadly, even a fine and a hardly noticed press release from consumer affairs would barely register with the company while the $$$ roll in.

 

[Frostydog007]

A letter to the CEO to advise of the misleading information and the compensation you seek may assist in resolving the matter. It has worked for me in the past (not credit card fees but on another long protracted matter)

 

[roby]

Some news to report back. I have had Guest Relations sorted it out for me. They have agreed to refund the $30 fee and acknowledged that the agent charged me this fee was wrong.

Here are the few things they clarified for me:

1. The $30 fee is charged when you redeem a VA long haul or partner reward seat bookings when the taxes are $50 or above and is paid for by a credit card. This fee is non refundable if you cancel the ticket. I asked them why it is non refundable (as in normally if you cancel a credit card charge the credit card fee is also refunded, a la QF) and they said this is not simply a credit card fee but also a managerial and administrative booking service fee. They can't call it some other name and pretend it is not a credit card fee.

As per their fee schedule and I quote "Booking and Service Fee (will apply to Reward Seat bookings when a credit card or debit card is used for payment and the payment is equal to $50 or more)", this fee is nothing but a credit card fee. What kind of booking service fee is determined by the sale amount?!

2. The $30 is not charged when you cancel an above reward booking even when the cancellation fee is $60 (more than $50). Guest Relations insist the agent who arranged my cancellation was wrong and it was not their procedure to charge this fee when you cancel a booking. I am not convinced as I have spoken to not one but three agents including a supervisor and all of them said the $30 would need to be charged. Guest Relations said that they will investigate this and correct the call centre procedures but who knows.

Anyway, if people here are in the same situation, here are your answers. Personally I think the credit card surcharge thing is out of control in this country and ACCC will need to put their foot down. I also heard on the radio today some energy company was charging people non-electronic payment fee when the customer paid cash. Hopeless!

 

[Eggsbenedict]

Some news to report back. I have had Guest Relations sorted it out for me. They have agreed to refund the $30 fee and acknowledged that the agent charged me this fee was wrong.

Here are the few things they clarified for me:

1. The $30 fee is charged when you redeem a VA long haul or partner reward seat bookings when the taxes are $50 or above and is paid for by a credit card. This fee is non refundable if you cancel the ticket. I asked them why it is non refundable (as in normally if you cancel a credit card charge the credit card fee is also refunded, a la QF) and they said this is not simply a credit card fee but also a managerial and administrative booking service fee. They can't call it some other name and pretend it is not a credit card fee.

As per their fee schedule and I quote "Booking and Service Fee (will apply to Reward Seat bookings when a credit card or debit card is used for payment and the payment is equal to $50 or more)", this fee is nothing but a credit card fee. What kind of booking service fee is determined by the sale amount?!

2. The $30 is not charged when you cancel an above reward booking even when the cancellation fee is $60 (more than $50). Guest Relations insist the agent who arranged my cancellation was wrong and it was not their procedure to charge this fee when you cancel a booking. I am not convinced as I have spoken to not one but three agents including a supervisor and all of them said the $30 would need to be charged. Guest Relations said that they will investigate this and correct the call centre procedures but who knows.

Anyway, if people here are in the same situation, here are your answers. Personally I think the credit card surcharge thing is out of control in this country and ACCC will need to put their foot down. I also heard on the radio today some energy company was charging people non-electronic payment fee when the customer paid cash. Hopeless!

I agree 100% with your comments regarding CC fees in Australia and virgin's $30 rewards fee is crazy but so is the $7.7 fee for normal domestic bookings. Regarding your other points in section 2 I believe that this was a mistake by the operator I have actually mentioned this in this thread already. I have canceled two bookings just this year neither paid an additional credit card fee the cancelation fee was simply deducted from the refunded Tax's.

 

[Mattg]

A good outcome for you, but I'm not convinced that Virgin have learnt anything, nor that they won't continue this practice going forward.

As for the credit card fee not being a credit card fee, that holds about as much water for me as Jetstar calling their credit card fee a "comfort fee" (as per this thread: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....am/qantas-says-jetstar-doesnt-levy-67916.html )

 

[roby]

I agree 100% with your comments regarding CC fees in Australia and virgin's $30 rewards fee is crazy but so is the $7.7 fee for normal domestic bookings. Regarding your other points in section 2 I believe that this was a mistake by the operator I have actually mentioned this in this thread already. I have canceled two bookings just this year neither paid an additional credit card fee the cancelation fee was simply deducted from the refunded Tax's.

I would have thought it was a mistake by one operator but I spoke to 3 of them including a supervisor. I notice there was a fee change on 3 March so maybe you didn't get caught up?

http://www.velocityfrequentflyer.co...ts/LatestNews/change-membership-contact-fees/

 

[bullerdude]

The thing which gets me is how is it $0 for under $50 and $30 for over $50 ?!

Utter bull-cough really... not sure why this isn't just a percentage fee...

 

[roby]

The thing which gets me is how is it $0 for under $50 and $30 for over $50 ?!

Utter bull-cough really... not sure why this isn't just a percentage fee...

Exactly. Ask the people who spend $49 and $51 how they really feel.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

not sure why this isn't just a percentage fee...

I'd say most of VAs "taxes etc" probably come in under $500. Most companies charge around about 1.5% which equals $7.50 as compared to $30......question answered perhaps? If, for example, a reward booking came in at an extra $70 in sundries (as one of my fairly recent ones did) that's 42% CC fee and as others have pointed out, despite what cute name they try to call it, when it's just levied on CC payments, then it's a CC fee......nothing else.

As much as I believe businesses should be able to recover genuine CC costs when they readily accept differing forms of payment (cash for instance), VA is not a company that makes payment by any form other than a credit card, easy or safe and to blatantly gouge clients should be illegal. Banks had to back down on unjustifiable fees as they were apparantly deemed as "taxing" clients, which in fact is illegal in Oz (apparantly only State and Federal gov'ts can tax). Why is this rip off any different?

 

[roby]

As much as I believe businesses should be able to recover genuine CC costs when they readily accept differing forms of payment (cash for instance), VA is not a company that makes payment by any form other than a credit card, easy or safe and to blatantly gouge clients should be illegal. Banks had to back down on unjustifiable fees as they were apparantly deemed as "taxing" clients, which in fact is illegal in Oz (apparantly only State and Federal gov'ts can tax). Why is this rip off any different?

I slightly disagree with this. Merchant fees are simply a business cost and should be priced in the fares. I may be able to understand why LCC carriers charge a credit card fee to bring the cost down for customers. But full service carriers in particular when selling premium class fares, credit card fees should be included just like meals, bags, etc.

I am in retail. If a customer walked in to my shop and spent $10,000 I would not dare charging customers a credit card fee. I am sure they would walk away if I did. The same applies to selling a premium class fare.

It's not wrong to say Economy passengers are subsidising Business passengers. I know QF claims that they under recover the their true merchant costs. Of course they did. Why on earth should they fully recover the merchant fee on a $10,000 business class fare which already has one of their best profit margins. I would really be questioning the intelligence of ACCC if they fell for that.

There is no easy solution to determine what's premium and what's low cost. The easiest solution to all of this is to ban credit card fees for everyone like in the US and believe me everyone will then get on with their lives. But I can see ACCC is simply too weak to do this.

 

[medhead]

I don't see ACCC as too weak. Unless perhaps you mean they are too weak to overturn their previous decision. The ACCC introduced credit card fees to make us, the consumer, more aware of the real cost of credit card points earning. Does anyone remember that gravy train? It's been an abject failure, points earning has instead just been continual slashed from credit cards, despite us knowing the true cost of earning those points with the credit card fees.