Virgin Australia Rip Off

[travelislife]

Now I am not one to rant but this is ridiculous.

I was attempting to book a flight for 7 people Perth to Melbourne, price came to $1960. I had a voucher for $1900. They then gave me only 2 options to pay the $60 balance, Credit Card, or Debit Card. All of these options attracted a few of $7.70 per person, thus I was being asked to pay $53.90 in fees to pay $60!

Now the thing that gets me here is I thought it was regulation that they had to offer an option that enabled someone to buy the tickets at the advertised price. There was zero way for me to do this.

What is even crazier and shows how arbitrary this 'convenience fee' is, is that I ended up booking 6 tickets, paying for the lot with the voucher (no convenience fee as there was no balance required, just a credit). I then booked the 7th ticket as a single ticket with the rest of the voucher and the $60 balance incurring only one $7.70 fee. A crazy process.

 

[Mattg]

I seem to recall a thread a little while ago where somebody was charged a $30 credit card fee to cover about $100 worth of taxes, then charged the card payment fee again to have the taxes refunded when the cancelled the booking (so $60 in charges all up) for essentially nothing.

This is just as ridiculous IMHO. Glad you found a way around it.

 

[Fiches Mouser]

Good that you found a workaround. These fees are insane.

Along the lines of that other thread, I recently paid a 30% credit card fee on a $100 transaction. Because Visa really charge 30% on transactions.

Imagine any other merchant attempting that. Makes me furious.

 

[knasty]

$50 is the threshold. $49.99 no fee, $50.01 and you pay the fee per person. I always use points to bring the payment just under $50. It's arbitrary but you gotta go with it...or go elsewhere.

 

[Milefest]

This annoys me as well.

It should be illegal if you advertise a price but not include the fee that that is impossible to avoid with any reasonable type of payment method.

 

[Dr Ralph]

It's definitely odd. Shows just how creative you need to be to find work arounds to these problems.

 

[Revolio]

In so many areas Virgin have a different interpretation of 'fair'. Money, money, money. But they are not alone.

 

[travelislife]

In so many areas Virgin have a different interpretation of 'fair'. Money, money, money. But they are not alone.

To tell you the truth if it was a flat 1.5% on all credit card transactions I wouldn't care (as long as there was a netbank fee free option available), even though I reckon the ACCC should make the surcharging illegal. It is the totally arbitrary $7.70 per person. You don't pay it when buying a gift voucher (using a credit card!). You don't pay it if your flights are wholly paid by the gift voucher. You don't pay it on a $49.99 transaction. But then they apply it to every passenger on a booking for a $60 balance!

 

[Bigglesworth]

It is a reflection on the management and culture of the company that does not allow any flexibility on the front line (be it on ground or in air) in circumstances which just defy complete logic and commonsense. Many is the time that I wish all airlines had adopted and maintained the culture instilled by Jan Carlzon (Moments of Truth) at SAS.