I figure this is a good a place as any to post my own experiences with Indian sites and my credit card. I have an Australian issued ANZ Bank Visa card.
FlyKingfisher.com - No Dice, had to get a local agent to book it (turned out cheaper though =)). Attempted 10+ times, constant error messages.
GoAir - Didn't work, it would process for some time, then return an error, had to book through cleartrip.
Cleartrip - Nearly always works, the last time i used it, for an IC flight, i recieved an email saying that the booking had failed but that they HAD debited my card and would call me. Very confusing. I called them, and the agent confirmed the IC flight manually for the same fare and issued the e-ticket. More hassle than i'd like, but it worked out.
Jetairways.com - Worked flawlessly.
SpiceJet - Worked flawlessly.
AirIndia - Trying to book an IC flight, the WORST airline website i have ever had to use. Counter-intuitive design, inputs prone to causing error messages (instead of selecting month and day from a drop down, you type it in yourself) and masses of information all over the screen. If you ever manage to make it to the payment screen, you enter your card, click pay, the screen will go blank and nothing will happen. Ever. Very frustrating.
Indian Railways - IRCTC.CO.IN - does not, under any circumstances, accept my card. I have tried every single one of the multitude of payment gateway options to no avail.
Expedia India - works fine. Although perhaps it was expedia Australia - the hotel was in Goa.
Programs: United 1K, SPG Platinum, US Airways Chairman
Posts: 13
My own experience has been terrible regarding credit cards. I was flying on Deccan (now Kingfisher) and someone else had bought my ticket with his credit card because my US card would not work. For the record it was an Indian cc from Citi. At the airport when i was checking in, they would not let get my boarding pass because they needed to see the card. I explained that it was purchased by my uncle but the rep insisted on seeing the card. I had to call this person and get a copy of his card faxed to the airport. It was insane.
However, there is quite a bit of fraud in India for CC's. There is really no concept of SSN there. Instead they have something called PAN#. But from I hear its very easy to get around it as the verification process is hard.
Indian Railways (irctc.co.in) - Unable to use US-issued MC. Also tried Amex, and kept getting error messages (was not charged).
The website says can only use MC/Visa is "verified-by-visa" or similar system is used by your bank. My bank does not have this unfortunately.
Airindia website - unable to use US-issued MC. Had to book through US-based Orbitz for the tickets.
Airindia does not take Amex (AFAIK).
flykingfisher.com - unable to use US-issued MC or Amex.
Like someone said upthread - if your credit card doesnt support verified by visa / mastercard securecode, you won't be able to use any indian booking site at all. There's a mandatory requirement from the Reserve Bank of India (kind of like the US Federal Reserve) that says all credit card accepting online merchants MUST require this for any card, indian or international, used to buy online.
IRCTC does take Amex - and they'll ask you for your address and some other details on the card for verification.
Quote:
Originally Posted by snod08
The website says can only use MC/Visa is "verified-by-visa" or similar system is used by your bank. My bank does not have this unfortunately.
JetAirways.com is consistently rejected on my Chase credit card, but works fine on my Bank of America Card. When I escalated my problem to a Chase supervisor, he told me that "Chase no longer does business with Jet Airways" due to a disagreement about how they handle disputed charges. Interesting.
JetAirways.com is consistently rejected on my Chase credit card, but works fine on my Bank of America Card. When I escalated my problem to a Chase supervisor, he told me that "Chase no longer does business with Jet Airways" due to a disagreement about how they handle disputed charges. Interesting.
Not very necessarily. Various banks and various merchants get into this type of argument all the time. One of them (the one that has less txn volume from the other .. like Chase wont get that many 9w tix booked on it) might then end up blacklisting the other for some time.
Like someone said upthread - if your credit card doesnt support verified by visa / mastercard securecode, you won't be able to use any indian booking site at all. There's a mandatory requirement from the Reserve Bank of India (kind of like the US Federal Reserve) that says all credit card accepting online merchants MUST require this for any card, indian or international, used to buy online.
IRCTC does take Amex - and they'll ask you for your address and some other details on the card for verification.
My bank does support verified by Visa, and even after entering all credentials correctly trying to book on IRCTC.co.in, i receive an error message every time.
Just booked BOM-BKK rtn on jetairways.com as follows:
1) itinerary created using home page, book my flights option.
2) on 2nd page, flights selected. Careful to deselect the opt in for the travel insurance. price in INR as itinerary is ex-India.
3) 3rd page takes down traveller details and CC payment.
4) E ticket receipt pops up on the screen.
Total transaction time = 5 minutes.
paid with a UK issued American Express card. Entered all details required (address, telephone, security number etc etc). Card processed 1st time, no hitches at all. E ticket arrived in email inbox straight away.
Good job Jet
Could U select your seats at the time of booking or did you have to wait?
__________________
You analyse EVERYTHING way too much
I work in the travel industry and have had to sidestep booking directly with Kingfisher altogether due to their credit card issues. I will use makemytrip, or have to go to the offices. I do most of my contracts through 9W and have no problems, including with Chase, which I have 2 business cards through and haven't had issues booking up to US$20,000 worth of tickets at a time.
As for Kingfisher, the other night is a perfect example, I have US Bank Flexperk Signature, and Gold Visa's, Chase United and Continental Signature visas, then for debits, HDFC (Indian), US Bank, and CharterOne. I needed to pay 200 INR for a change fee over the phone on two tickets I had booked through the Delhi CP desk, and they told me they couldn't accept debits. I said, okay, here is credit card 1, NOPE, 2, NOPE, 3, NOPE. I explained that all of these are very large limits and this is not my card at this point, and it is definitely a system error on their side. I then requested that I pay the 200 INR at check-in, since it is such a small amount, but "not possible." The phone CS agent said, no sir, your card is being declined, so I continued through all of my credit cards, and decided, what the hell, I'll try my debit cards. The US Bank debit worked, and he said, see sir, this error is not in our system. I laughed and told him it was my debit card. "Oh sir, I don't understand, we don't take debit cards."
Anyway, Kingfisher needs to get its act together, I had started to fly them due to the EQM's I get on NWA, but for the sake of sanity, I might jump ship again back to 9W!
Programs: SQ, BD*G, BA Gold, EK Gold, IC Free Minibar, HH Gold, SPG Gold, Avis CHM, Hertz PC
Posts: 5,830
Quote:
Originally Posted by aktchi
Mainly, Don't Work
Kingfisher
Indian Railways (IRCTC.CO.IN)
I've used a UK-issued Amex successfully on the Indian Railways site twice this year. No issues at all.
I've also used a UK-issued Amex, US-issued Amex and Singapore-issued Visa successfully on the Kingfisher site several times. A few times the Amex cards (both US and UK) didn't go through the first time - I called Amex and told them I'm making bookings on the Kingfisher website and they put a note to allow the transaction the next time, which worked when I retried again. No problems with the Singapore-issued Visa (from UOB).
I've also used a UK-issued Amex, US-issued Amex and Singapore-issued Visa successfully on the Kingfisher site several times. A few times the Amex cards (both US and UK) didn't go through the first time - I called Amex and told them I'm making bookings on the Kingfisher website and they put a note to allow the transaction the next time, which worked when I retried again. No problems with the Singapore-issued Visa (from UOB).
I had same issue using my UK Amex for booking flights on Bangkok Airways. The price was in THB and i tried to complete the transaction online three times before i called up amex. I told them how much it would cost in THB and a rough estimate in GBP. They ok'ed it on their computers and the next attempt on bangkok airways website, the transaction was completed without any hitches.
Kingfisher 
