Originally Posted by
hillrider
Sorry, I am new to the region -- what credit card surcharge are you talking about?
I tried that routing on
www.expedia.co.th all the way to the credit card authorization screen and they asked THB 10,675.00, with "Expedia Booking Fee ฿0.0" -- they don't appear to add any surcharges at all!
I tried
www.expedia.com.my and mh.com and they both quoted MYR 1,398.00
Translating everything to USD, it's USD 327.56 on
www.expedia.co.th and USD 389.45 when purchased in KUL, a difference of USD 61.89, or a whopping 19%. And no credit card surcharges in either place -- just the out-of-country MH fare surcharge in KUL.
He means an actual physical agent might sometimes levy a fee to offset transaction charges by Visa/Master. OTAs waive that.
As for the rest of the thread... there are some things that are valid, but you seem to be particularly peeved that some MH fares aren't accessed easily by the great unwashed. But really, it's just simple obfuscation of price discrimination- MH still prefers to sell ex-KUL fares at normal rates and would prefer Malaysians not buy them from BKK or SIN with an AirAsia flight. There's nothing real daft about it. If you're in the know, then good on you.
Au contraire... Both UA and AA refuse to even take a Malaysian credit card when booking online. Now that's ridiculous for a "first-world" airline's IT, no?