Recently, here in the States, I purchased 3 Aer Lingus tickets by phone totaling over $5000, paid the dollar price with my Bank of America Credit card, and have since received a credit card statement with a $144 foreign transaction fee for these tickets. When I called the bank, it said that there's a fee because, since Aer Lingus is an Irish Airline, the tickets would be processed in Ireland.
In fact, the number I called was a New York state number, the person who dealt with the transaction was American, and as far as I'm concerned the transaction was processed in New York state.
Has anyone else come across this?
I've been flying transatlantic for the past 30 years and have never had a foreign transaction fee when I purchased a ticket from an overseas airline before with other credit cards. Just interested in your thoughts.