Booking flights on credit card? Protection?

Hi Marnie,

You go to the original credit card you paid for the flights with (Halifax).

This is because the protection you get in Section 75 holds the credit card company liable because they leant you the money to buy those flights.

The balance transfer should be no different than if you were to pay off the credit card with a normal monthly payment from your current account.

Whether or not you've paid back the money on your credit card shouldn't affect the protection you are given under Section 75.

You should read this: http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/31/creditcards-31.htm

It has an interesting paragraph (which hopefully doesn't apply to you):

"Where customers use a credit card to buy airline or other travel tickets from a travel agent, they cannot normally claim against the travel agent if the airline delays or cancels the flight. This is because the travel agent contracted to supply the ticket, not the flight. So the customer would not have a claim under section 75 either."

"However, things are different if customers use a credit card to buy the travel agent’s own ‘package’ of travel arrangements. In such instances the agent is the supplier of the holiday package."

Hope this helps

shavedchimp wrote: »

Do you happen to know if there's a greater charge/fee for booking a flight with a credit card than with a debit card?

I seem to recall that Ryanair charge a different amount depending on your method of payment.

I am considering getting a credit card for booking a flight (for insurance in case of a problem, plus want to claim cashback), but will some of this saving be off-set by having to pay more in credit card fees?

Peter

This varies between airlines/booking agents. In my experience, traditional scheduled airlines don't tend to charge extra, travel agents often do, and budget airlines usually do. AFAIK Ryanair now charges the same for debit and credit cards, except for the Visa Electron debit card which is free.

Visa debit cards have some protection under the Visa Chargeback scheme, but it's not protected by law and you don't really have any recourse if you can't get your money back.