Exorbitant flybe card charges

malkie76

But they exist, which is the only point I'm making. There is a method by which you can avoid the card charge, hence it's optional.

Louisdf

If debit card charges were really about the cost of accepting them, then surely they would offer to take payment by bank transfer. However, if they did they would need to increase their fares in order to make up for lost revenue.

dzug1

NFH wrote: »

Yes, I can. The card charges are not optional because the only non-surcharged method of payment cannot be obtained sufficiently quickly in order to pay for a flight booking.

Nor can surcharged methods if you don't already have them. Level playing field there

dzug1

NFH wrote: »

Nevertheless the lack of availability of Visa Electron cards to IOM residents demonstrates that Flybe should include its card surcharges in its fares. The only reason that airlines are making these surcharges is to disguise the full cost of fares and to mislead consumers.

Don't follow your logic. UK advertising laws are not necessarily applicable in the Isle of Man.

And let's say someone overseas books with a locally issued visa electron card - I very much doubt if the budget airlines will recognise it for what it is (they don't even reliably recognise UK issued ones).

And to play devil's advocate a bit:

what's wrong with misleading customers? If they are thick they deserve it, if not they won't be misled:D

and in the case of Mr O'Leary, his purpose is to annoy regulatory bodies (who he doesn't think should exist) by finding ways round their rulings rather than anything to do with passengers. In danger of backfiring - eventually - but it hasn't yet.

I agree with you it's a stupid situation (I get round it by not using budget airlines, Ryanair in particular. Any destination only served by them doesn't get visited) but with the deregulatory stance of the current government I'm not sure anything will be done about it.

lfc84

dzug1 wrote: »

Don't follow your logic. UK advertising laws are not necessarily applicable in the Isle of Man.

An IOM resident can make a complaint to the ASA about a UK company and have it investigated

NFH

malkie76 wrote: »

But they exist, which is the only point I'm making. There is a method by which you can avoid the card charge, hence it's optional.

That advertised method cannot be used (for reasons I explained above), so the surcharge not optional.

malkie76

So visa electron is a figment of my imagination ?

Do they exist or not ? Simple yes/no answer please

lfc84

malkie76 wrote: »

So visa electron is a figment of my imagination ?

Do they exist or not ? Simple yes/no answer please

yes. i have one

malkie76

Thanks I was starting to worry I was making things up in my head

tightarsey

flybe.com charge genuine, valid Cooperative Visa Electron Cards (with a Visa Electron Logo) £18 on flybe.com, when there should be no fee. The cards are treated as Visa Debit. flybe.com should be forced to repay every penny of these fees, as they are incorrectly classifying the card, to their advantage. Must amount to several hundred thousand pounds in fees, if not millions.