I made a reservation with JAT Airways for a flight within Europe. I had found the fare on orbitz, but it seems there's no way to purchase the ticket either on the orbitz site or even on JAT's site (www.jat.com). So I looked on their website and found their ticket office in NYC. I placed the reservation with someone there, who quoted me the same price I had found on orbitz (which was encouraging to me). However, they want me to pay by mailing a bank check or money order to the NY office (no credit cards). Now, the address they gave is the same one on the website, and everything seems legitimate. However, I'm just a little hesitant to send a bank check for a substantial amount (2 tickets) to someone. Does this seem unusual to anyone, or is the consensus that it's OK?
Location: Portland OR Double Emerald (QF and AA), DL PM/MM, Starwood Plat
Posts: 9,803
I guess they cannot process credit cards due to the embargo on Serbia (though I thought that was completely lifted, apparently there are some residual effects). I suppose Serbia is no longer a rogue state bent on exterminating the innocent, so doing business with them doesn't quite have the moral stigma that it used to. However their problems might have spilled over into the operational and safety aspects of the airline, something you might wish to investigate before deciding to fly them (or not). Most routes in Europe have several LCC as competition.
Thanks. It never occurred to me that an embargo was why they can't accept credit cards.
This route has three options - Austrian, Alitalia, and JAT. JAT is the cheapest by a small margin, but the main thing is that their connection times are FAR more convenient. So I'd greatly prefer to fly them. A local friend also recommended them to me and said he's flown this route before and it's fine.
That said, is the consensus that this seems OK?
EDIT: I see that this might be better suited for the TravelBuzz forum, since it's not about frequent flyer travel. I'll repost. Sorry.
Location: Portland OR Double Emerald (QF and AA), DL PM/MM, Starwood Plat
Posts: 9,803
It depends what your concern is. If concern is whether the cheque will be cashed by someone other than JAT, that is a slim possibility but not a likely concern. By paying by cheque you lose the protection of a credit card; if airline goes bankrupt (not likely for JAT, at least in the short term) you are an unsecured creditor and likely to get nothing. Whereas if paying by credit card you can contest the charge and get a refund; similar protection if any other problems in travel leading to your ticket not being honoured. I wouldn't be too concerned about paying by cheque, but personally would not fly JAT given the alternative airlines. FWIW JAT is an LH partner, presumably LH checks up on them periodically.
Thanks for your reply. I'm aware of the general issue of protection with credit cards. I guess my main concern was one of whether this was some sort of scam. It seemed highly unlikely given that I sought out this ticket office via the JAT website, but I still had some residual worries. So it seems I should be OK in that respect. As for the other issues (airline bankruptcy, ticket not honoured, etc) - I'm willing to chance those if I have to.
I now see that travelocity (but not orbitz) does allow me to buy the JAT ticket through them via a credit card. However, it's quite a bit more than orbitz quoted and more than JAT directly.
The Austrian and Alitalia connections would be greatly preferable to me as well, but unfortunately they are very bad flight times. I guess I'll go with JAT even with the small risk of the payment method.
I flew JAT extensively in the 70s and 80s and we always paid by check. They probably (still) don't have the resources and demand to commit to credit card machines. Plus, if most of their clientele are still Yugos as before (which is highly likely) many of don't use credit cards. Cash is king.
Let us know how it works out.
FWIW, there are other carriers (Aeroflot, and Croatia Air come to mind) that also don't sell tix online. I wouldn't be worried about any scams.
Write up a trip report! I would love to read about how flying JAT is like nowadays...
I am a Serb and lived in Belgrade. JAT Airways does not have credit card processing because there is no electronic signature law implemented. Hence, Serbian companies cannot process tickets via credit card.
In Belgrade, we always pay for tickets in cash. However, as of lately I do know that we flew BOS-CDG-BEG on JAt flight (CDG_BEG) and payed with credit card. We purchased the tickets at a local travel agent here in Boston.
If you have any questions, please contact me and I will ask my agent who regulary purchases sells tickets on JAT customers.
Well, my trip was some time ago but I just remembered this thread and thought to reply. I did pay by bank check and had no problems. Interestingly, before I paid (mailed to the NY office) I called the London office and they told me they could accept a credit card (paying in GBP). Strange. Anyway, with the conversion it was significantly more so I went with the bank check. I got the tickets in the mail and all was well.
The flights were fine on JAT. The aircraft were rather old and the flight attendents even more so, but the experience was not bad. Some oddities:
(1) There was no JAT desk at Heathrow, only an Alitalia desk with a little JAT sign. It wasn't open when we arrived at the airport. We had to wait a while, and eventually it opened.
(2) We left relatively late (about an hour) out of Heathrow, but that wasn't an issue since the connection out of Belgrade (within Serbia) was also delayed, by about 2 hours. So about 2 hours total delay.
(3) We were fed tuna fish sandwiches on the way there. This seems an odd choice for an airplane. I declined mine (I do like tuna normally) as it looked particularly unappetizing, but the whole airplane stunk of it!
(4) This was followed with a peanut snack - luckily no peanut allergies on the plane as far as I could tell.
(5) Upon arriving in Belgrade, we had been warned by a friend that we had to take our own luggage off the conveyer, up the stairs and down a hall to re-checkin. Well, that staircase was closed, and the elevator was out of service. So, we had to carry them across the street, up a rusted staircase, along the sidewalk where cars pull into the airport, over a bridge, back into the terminal, down a long hallway, and to the luggage counter. Luckily our next flight was delayed!
(6) The return flight into Belgrade was cancelled and we were shuffled onto an alternate airline. Fortunately that worked OK and our return to Heathrow was uneventful.
Overall, the JAT experience was fine, if quirky. I had a great vacation, though, and any troubles seemd minor in comparison.
Programs: UA 1K, IC RA, Marriott Silver, SPG Gold, ¤
Posts: 26,954
Quote:
Originally Posted by dewolfxy
Well, my trip was some time ago but I just remembered this thread and thought to reply. I did pay by bank check and had no problems. Interestingly, before I paid (mailed to the NY office) I called the London office and they told me they could accept a credit card (paying in GBP). Strange. Anyway, with the conversion it was significantly more so I went with the bank check. I got the tickets in the mail and all was well.
The flights were fine on JAT. The aircraft were rather old and the flight attendents even more so, but the experience was not bad. Some oddities:
(1) There was no JAT desk at Heathrow, only an Alitalia desk with a little JAT sign. It wasn't open when we arrived at the airport. We had to wait a while, and eventually it opened.
(2) We left relatively late (about an hour) out of Heathrow, but that wasn't an issue since the connection out of Belgrade (within Serbia) was also delayed, by about 2 hours. So about 2 hours total delay.
(3) We were fed tuna fish sandwiches on the way there. This seems an odd choice for an airplane. I declined mine (I do like tuna normally) as it looked particularly unappetizing, but the whole airplane stunk of it!
(4) This was followed with a peanut snack - luckily no peanut allergies on the plane as far as I could tell.
(5) Upon arriving in Belgrade, we had been warned by a friend that we had to take our own luggage off the conveyer, up the stairs and down a hall to re-checkin. Well, that staircase was closed, and the elevator was out of service. So, we had to carry them across the street, up a rusted staircase, along the sidewalk where cars pull into the airport, over a bridge, back into the terminal, down a long hallway, and to the luggage counter. Luckily our next flight was delayed!
(6) The return flight into Belgrade was cancelled and we were shuffled onto an alternate airline. Fortunately that worked OK and our return to Heathrow was uneventful.
Overall, the JAT experience was fine, if quirky. I had a great vacation, though, and any troubles seemd minor in comparison.
Sounds like an interesting trip! Glad you took it all in stride. If that had been United the line of FTers waiting to ..... and moan for compensation would be three blocks long .
