Ticket confirmed but payment not taken

nebula89

I paid for a flight from South America to London, and it is now "confirmed" according to the airline, but the money hasn't properly left my account.

I paid with a credit card, and the amount has been blocked, but there hasn't been a transaction, nor is there a pending one.

What's happened to the flight? It's been at least 24hrs now and nothing has happened, so i'm not sure if I need to ring the credit card company or the airline?

The amount was quoted in foreign currency, so maybe that threw it off? 

When I paid it simply went straight to "confirmed" - there was no "verified by visa" or equivalent that you usually get with large amounts - so i'm not sure what's happened really.... 

Who should I call? Is this flight ticket salvageable? 

MorningcoffeeIV

The flight is booked. There's nothing to salvage at this point.

What do you mean by the amount has been 'blocked'?

nebula89

I mean, the available balance on my credit card has gone down by the amount but there's no transaction on the statement - and my balance hasn't been updated - still the same as it was the other day before I booked the flight. So it's only sort of... half gone? Basically it hasn't gone through like any other payment would have.

And I didn't do the verified by visa part - so i'm not sure if it's actually confirmed or will just get cancelled when the airline don't get their money. 

born_again

nebula89 said:

I mean, the available balance on my credit card has gone down by the amount but there's no transaction on the statement - and my balance hasn't been updated - still the same as it was the other day before I booked the flight. So it's only sort of... half gone? Basically it hasn't gone through like any other payment would have.

And I didn't do the verified by visa part - so i'm not sure if it's actually confirmed or will just get cancelled when the airline don't get their money. 

What's happened to the flight? It's been at least 24hrs now and nothing has happened, so i'm not sure if I need to ring the credit card company or the airline?

So the payment has been authorised then.
On credit cards they do not update in real time. So a auth may not show as a debited transaction till late Monday or Tuesday.
Airline will take funds at some point. 
Start worrying when available balance is back to what it should & there is no debit..

Westin

Was this booked direct with an airline or via a third party ticket seller?

Possibly the airline/agents system only makes the debit when ‘ticketing’ is complete. Have you received an email confirmation which shows an airline ticket number?  

Brie

Was this done today or yesterday?  It may be that the bank needs to wait til Monday to confirm the exchange rate.  Years back I worked doing FX trades and nothing ever happened between the American markets closing at about 9 pm GMT on a Friday and the Asian markets opening at about 10 pm on a Sunday.

nebula89

I booked direct on the airlines website, I asked for a "receipt" of sorts, it's on there, ticket number and booking reference. My card is there listed as the payment type with the amount quoted in local currency and then in USD as well.

I tried once on Lufthansa, where it didn't work at all, then again for the exact same flight on Swiss, which just took me from "confirm and pay" straight through to a confirmation page, no verification checks, but then did send through the whole email with "we look forward to welcoming you aboard".

I paid it yesterday morning, about 10am UK time. 

Hopefully i'm just over thinking it? 

bagand96

I'm sure you're overthinking it.

With network airlines like Lufthansa/Swiss there's two things that confirm a booking.  The first is the PNR (Passenger Name Record) which is the 6 digit alphanumeric code.  The PNR contains all the information on the passengers and itinerary etc.  Within this you also need ticket numbers - a longer string of numbers, at least one per passenger.

It's rare, but it can happen that a PNR gets generated but the ticketing part doesn't occur. Airlines use complex systems that in some cases can seem archaic, like ticketing runs being done overnight.  Systems errors can mean a ticket never gets generated even though the PNR looks fine  (looking at you BA IT!)

However, you say you have a PNR and a ticket number so that all looks good.  I'm sure it's just a delay in the banks posting the transaction, it's the weekend after all!

nebula89

Thanks for the comments guys!

The balance still hasn't been taken from my card, still just that amount blocked/reserved on my card. Flight status is still confirmed and valid on their website.

I've messaged Swiss just to confirm with them. 

Still thinking it was something to do with how it went straight from "Pay here" to "Confirmed" without verification from the card company. I don't remember that ever really happening before. Unless it's something to do with it being Swiss and Swiss banking rules? But that seems a bit absurd. Never thought i'd be waiting to see money leave my account!

nebula89

An update if anyone's interested...

Amex confirmed SWISS didn't take the payment yet. 

Blocked amount has now disappeared - assuming that's as it's 10 days since transaction.

Called SWISS who keep saying it's confirmed, payment "deducted" and nothing to worry about.

So... still just as unclear. 

Seen a few other posts in various other forums of people who's payment seems to have disappeared off into the ether and most of them say that "eventually" the airline takes payment - so i'm not sure whether to play the waiting game anymore - both the card company and airline have said it's fine. I guess i'll keep an eye on both ends.. .