k374

I booked a ticket through Vayama on Turkish Airlines about 12 days ago. Initially my card was auth'd by "TURKISH AIRLINE" and it was in pending status for about 3 days after which the auth dropped but nothing was posted to my card. Now, there is no charge from either the airline or Vayama.

I called Vayama and I got a standard email saying to wait until the airline submits the charge to my card and they have no control over charging. I called Turkish airlines and they said that they don't initiate charges only the travel agent does so to contact Vayama.

Turkish airlines have confirmed the tickets, they have been issued and it also appears good to go when I got to the Turkish airlines website and attempt to check in.

I've always been charged almost immediately when I booked tickets, it is rather strange that neither the airline nor Vayama charges their customers for weeks after the booking. Does anyone here have a similar experience? If so, when did the charge finally go through?

For the record, I've used Vayama once years ago and did not have any issues.

obscure2k

Moving this thread to the Online booking Forum
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

SK AAR

why the fuss/start calling Vayama and the airline about this? You are good to travel and in the unlikely event that no charge will be made, then be it and be happy - however I'm quite sure that your cc will be charged eventually. I can't explain why it hasn't been done yet.

seawolf

Do you have a ticket#? It is a 13-digit number beginning with 235. If so, you should be fine. If not, then Vayama is your point of contact.

k374

the charge was finally posted directly by the airline, it took about 2 weeks to post.

Often1

This is the sole issue. An e-ticket #. No such thing as a confirmation, an itinerary, a PNR, or whatever.

In order to board, you need a ticket, which is evidence of payment, and a reservation. It is the former which you need to worry about and once you have that, you are set.

We are all used to instant payment processing and it ought to be that way for the carrier's protection. But, it isn't. Not really your problem. At worst, you get to the counter and the agent notes that you have a payment due. Have your CC ready if that happens. But, it didn't.

k374

This is interesting because in the past I have always been charged instantly. My concern was that the ticket was subject to cancellation if the payment was not received. Since Vayama was saying that the airline needs to collect the payment and the airline was saying that Vayama was supposed to do it the issue was if the payment was never collected my either and the ticket was cancelled due to lack of payment then I would be screwed because at the last minute the tickets would be super expensive and other parts of my itinerary would be messed up.

seawolf

Vayama is responsible for collecting payment from you. Airline gets payment from Vayama.

Airline does not know if Vayama collected from you all not. All they know is Vayama owes them for the ticket.

onlyairfare

I have used Vayama several times in the past. However, the last time I booked through Vayama, I received an email from them 3 days later saying, in effect, "Oops this ticket at this fare isn't available after all."

I successfully rebooked the same itinerary at the same price, but decided not to use Vayama any more. Sometimes 3 days later, the ticket has doubled or tripled in price.

k374

Yes, but I have an official email from Vayama saying payment will be collected by the airline and they are not responsible for collecting the payment. The Vayama representative sent me this after I called and it's from their support department.

This is what confused me, because usually when you buy a ticket from a vendor the vendor is responsible for all interaction with the customer. In this case Vayama says the airline is responsible which is strange.

However, what Vayama stated was true... the charge on my statement is from Turkish airlines directly and not from Vayama. Not sure how this works. In any case I have confirmed with the airline the ticket# and everything shows up fine on the airlines website so not too concerned.

seawolf

I would take Vayama's communication with a grain of salt as none of it is really true or maybe they "dumbed it down" in an attempt to avoid confusion.

The credit card statement shows Turkish Airlines but the charge is not technically done by Turkish. It is initiated by travel agent via a credit card acceptance solution (ARC/Sabre etc) which reports and makes it appear the charge as coming directly from the airline when it is not.

When US travel agent makes a booking, they collect payment, report the sale and remit payment to ARC. Airlines then collect payment from ARC. Vayama is responsible for collecting payment and remitting to ARC.

This arrangement also lets travel agents to void a sale (ticket) out by next business day without regard to penalty even on non-refundable fares. If you book via Orbitz/Expedia etc, you'll see they give you a 24 hour courtesy cancel even when booked less than the DOT mandated "24-hour refund if booked more than 7 days prior to departure" regulation.