Wanted to see if anyone else has come across this same issue...

We tried booking a flight on Cathay Pacific from Vancouver to HKG. Everything seemed fine and we were prompted to select our seats and make our payment. At the final stage of submitting the booking we received an error message, something to the effect of, we cannot complete your booking, please try again. We tried the booking again and received a message that our credit card was invalid and to try another method of payment. We tried again using a different credit card and once again, the same message to try our booking again, followed by another message that our credit card was invalid. We tried calling our credit card company and it turns out that Cathay Pacific had done a credit card authorization both times, essentially holding that amount on our card, rendering it impossible for us to make another booking or even use our credit cards as we had now exceeded our limit.

We called Cathay Pacific and they told us the tickets had not been issued and we would have to wait a few days for the pre-authorizations to be lifted. When we asked them to check the prices for the trip we had just tried to book, the cost had somehow increased by $800 a piece. Don’t mean to rant, but why continue to advertise that price if not available!

At this moment, all our credit cards have been maxed out by these pending pre-authorization. Our hands are tied in making another reservation, due to this.

Has anyone else experienced a similar problem with their online bookings?

Thanks for your time,

Chazz79