Foreign credit cards at Indian carriers/portals

Difficulty of using foreign credit cards at Indian websites is a common complaint and I thought it might be useful to gather known info in one place.

Please post recent experiences and I'll try maintain a guide here. (My own OP has been moved to post #2.) Please include card type, bank and country of issue. If your own bank disapproved a charge, that's not the Indian portal's fault, so when possible please separate such cases.

The following is a snapshot of foreign cc acceptance at Indian websites as of December 2009, a few relevant posts are mentioned in parentheses:

Mainly, Appear to Work

^ ClearTrip (#16)
^ Expedia India (#16)
^ Travelocity India (#2,3)
^ Indigo (#2,12,31,53)
^ SpiceJet (#3,16)
^ Yatra (#50)

Mixed Reports

Air India / Indian Airlines (#16,18,33)
Jet Airways (#2,15,16,20,21,33,53)
Indian Railways IRCTC.CO.IN (#3,16,18,23,27,41,50,54)

Mainly, Don't Work

GoAir (#16)
Kingfisher (#2,9,14,16,17,18,27,29,31,38)
Paramount (#12)

Difficulty of using foreign credit cards at Indian websites is a common complaint. My own experience of September 2009 involving four websites was evenly divided. I have a US-issued Citibank AAdvantage Mastercard:

Jet Airways: The charge didn't go through. No explanation, only "try again later", which didn't help. Jet's portal also looked quite dated.

Kingfisher Airlines: They take the prize for stupidity and dishonesty. Charge declined with the message that my bank disapproved. I called Citibank and they said no charge was even requested by Kingfisher. Called Kingfisher whose rep admitted that their message was erroneous and KF itself blocks entire batches of cards - nothing specific about my card, just whole batches. He advised to buy from Travelocity-India. As to why KF won't accept cards that Travelocity does, he said "They are different companies". Great insight.

I thought this was a good opportunity to try Travelocity-India.

Travelocity.co.in: ^ Almost normal, except a message popped up that my card is registered for "Secure MC" program (something I don't recall doing, but I am glad it's there) and needed one extra click to proceed. The purchase (of the KF ticket) went through smoothly.

IndiGo Airlines: ^^ I could have bought the Jet ticket too at Travelocity, but it was a Jetlite flight, nothing exciting. An IndiGo flight's timing would serve me just as well. So I decided to try a new airline and its website. The website experience was perfect, like an online purchase at any good portal anywhere. Entered the card info, one click and I had my confirmed booking with PNR and other details.

it could also depend on what card you're using (issuing bank). Capital One (Visa) did not work with IndiGo. was first rejected, then accepted after I called Capital One and told them to authorize it (had to tell them how much I was charging).

SpiceJet: Worked fine (a couple months ago, before the new regulation)

airindia.com/indianairlines.in: Works, as long as their site is running

+1 with Travelocity India - HSBC Mastercard worked fine, first time.

I've booked on all those sites using my old HSBC Hong Kong mastercard .. no issues. The 9W people ask you for your bank because they want to try sell you the 9W / Citibank visa plat .. if you give them some other bank there they'll pop up a "you could get discounts and earn 9w miles if you book using the 9w card, call 1-800-xxx for details"

Thanks for the feedback. However, we should note that this was not IndiGo's fault, as your own bank Capital One rejected the charge.

How long ago was this?

How long ago? Well .. multiple times over the past 8 years.

Kingfisher faced a lot of problems a couple of years ago with tickets purchases fraudulently with stolen credit card numbers. As a general comment though, there are several US carriers as well that also do not allow the use of cards with a non-US billing address.

True, but they reveal this policy up front, so you don't go round and round hoping that your card would work next time. And they don't blame your bank for the charge not going through!

I have bought two Kingfisher domestic segments about a week ago using my Japan-issued VISA card and it worked smoothly, the e-tickets arrived via email soon after the purchase.

I always cry crocodile tears when I hear any airline cry about "online fraud". They built this monster themselves by telling travel agents they weren't needed, trying to cut their costs by building websites...only to get bitten in the rear by their MBA thinking coupled with the glee of their pony-tailed and tattooed "consultants".

It is known as the WORLDwide web...the INTERNATIONAL Air Transport Association...so how is someone supposed to buy a ticket on said airlines when they do not maintain any ticketing presence outside of their home country?

Oh, right, I forgot...they'll stand and cry and pout and have Apologist Bisagnani send a press release and blame fuel costs and government fees and regulations. No sympathy from me, airline execs are just whiners and cry babies, worse than the worst complainer here on FT.

Still, it is pretty clunky behavior. They can tell from the card number if it is theirs or not.

I am glad for you. KF is blocking cards beginning with some numbers, but not others.

I had a different experience with Indigo. When I tried to use my Chase visa the portal rejected it. I checked with Indigo, then determined it was the bank. I called the bank twice before it was resolved. My amex was rejected too but I did not try to resolve this.

The same thing happened to my brother when he tried to book on Paramount. After repeated tries, it only accepted the Indian CC.

There should be a procedure to register the foreign credit cards.

However other merchants in India routinely accept foreign credit cards and the charges go through without any problems (hotels, department stores, restaurants etc.). It seems the problem is unique only with airline websites.

I am trying to make a reasonable distinction between when (i) an Indian website is not accepting all or some of the foreign-issued cards, and when (ii) your bank itself rejects those charges because their computers detect it as an "unusual purchase" for you.

For example, having used my ATM card in Delhi, London, Tokyo for many years, I found it rejected in Montreal because my bank's computer correctly determined that, though geographically closer, it was an unusual city for me. However, this was my bank's decision and can't be blamed on Canada or the canadian bank I was at.

I have learned to inform my credit card and ATM card issuing banks before every major trip. Maybe we should do the same before a charge spree on Indian portals.

I think the banks make a big distinction between when a card is physically swiped and you there to present an ID if asked, and when it is being used online or over phone. So yes, in principle I could probably use my card at an airline's office in Delhi but not be able to use it online.

Another negative report on Kingfisher-

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/airli...l#post12834601

Please keep adding your good or bad CC experiences with any Indian carrier or travel agent. I'll switch to summarizing the current state at the top of the thread.

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 ^