Hi,
I made a booking on AF two days ago and logged online to pay it with Mastercard yesterday. I went through 3D Secure/SecureCode and got a confirmation from my bank that money was taken. However, AF didn't issue me a ticket number and the call center doesn't see any payment. Called the bank, they said transaction has been approved and gave me an authentication number. AF agent couldn't understand what to do with it and suggested that I pay the ticket fees with him on the phone (again).

What should I do?

Note: a similar thing happened to me last week on AF but I got a ticket number two hours later.

Extra information: my initial method of payment was bank transfer. I had until Thursday to complete the transfer but changed it online to be Mastercard.

It's always a bad idea to "change" something about a payment like this.

You should ring AF again and explain that you changed the payment method....I could be wrong, but from the way you described the situation, it appears that you may not have given this info on the phone during your first call. You should have a reference number (most likely the PNR) for the transaction.

However, given that the payment wasn't successfully completed, I think all that they will tell you now is to wait for the systems to realise a payment was received for which no valid booking can be reconciled - and wait for the system to process a refund.

When a bank transfer goes wrong in this manner, it usually is spotted and returned within 48 hours. However, given that you used a credit card, it can probably take much longer (weeks, perhaps) to be refunded.

I would advise you to ring AF again and give them the specific details that you added to your post here. However, I expect that there is nothing they can do, given that the original booking is now expired. You will almost certainly have to make a new booking, and the price you originally had may no longer be available. I do not think there is now any way for them to associate the stray, random payment with the now expired booking - and there may be no way for them to expedite the refund of that payment to your card.

Please keep us advised of your progress.

Your tickets are essentially put on hold while in the ticketing queue. The OP will see a "Pending" on their credit card statement and perhaps a test charge by Air France to see if the card is valid. If the card is declined the reservation gets cancelled or in some cases will go back to the hold status and the OP has 24 hours to contact the airline with the new payment info.

Sometimes it can take airlines awhile to process the credit card charges from Pending to Posted. Also just by having the Record Locator Number does not mean its a valid ticket. You need the Ticket# which can take anywhere from 2 hours to 72 hours or instant. All airlines have up to 72 hours to ticket or deny the reservation which is why its important to check the status online or via the call center and ask"Is my ticket ticketed, on request or on hold".

Also you can ask if the FOP(Form of Payment) has been approved and processed and posted to the reservation.

This helps to ensure you do have a valid ticket in case the fare goes up and you were not ticketed you could repurchase a ticket before you show up or find out weeks or months later that you were never issued a ticket.

Here is a story of why to always confirm you are ticketed and to confirm that you are put on the correct flights within 24 hours and to make sure your names match the Passport/ID card.

A friend purchased a ticket to Europe and thought all was fine and dandy. He showed up to the San Francisco International Airport with the Record Locator Number(this was before online checkin/online manage my trip was popular). The Ticket Counter Agent said "I'm sorry sir there is no reservation under this Confirmation Number".

My Friend got so upset as he told me and said "But I paid for my ticket" and had a confirmation number. There was no ticket number and he was forced to repurchase the ticket for $2,500 the cost of the ticket for that day if he wanted to fly(A very expensive lesson and yes he did have to pay that because he was on a pre-arranged tour and had a family event that he needed to attend). His original ticket was $770 r/t and this was back in the late 90s. It was during the busy summer travel period. If he had called the airline to confirm that he was ticketed he would have more than likely been able to repurchase the ticket for around $770. I asked my Friend if he checked his credit card statement to see if the airlie took his money and he said"Yes it all looked good". Not sure how he dealt with getting compensated and where the error took place but the Ticket Counter Agent was only following the policies of the airline as if the passenger just walked up and wanted to buy a ticket for that day.



There is a Fraud Department especially for international transactions they will audit reservations and this can delay ticketing its to protect the airline and the customer so a random stranger won't book a ticket using your credit card without your authorization.

Its best to have Online Banking Setup and link your credit card so you get alerts when a card has been charged etc.

I hope this helps.

New Data Point:

We purchased two (2) Business Class tickets, multi-city (DFW-CDG, BOD-CDG-DFW) on October 2nd, 2025. The charge showed as pending on our credit card statement until October 9th, 2025, so exactly one-week to go from purchase/pending to posted. However, we were issued ticket numbers (not just PNR) within minutes of the actual purchase, so I wasn't worried, but more curious than anything.

Point of Sale was in the USA. The pending charge showed as one transaction, but upon posting, it gets split into two (half and half) for each passenger. This also occurs when we purchase tickets on American Airlines, Turkish Airlines, etc.

I can't recall any prior tickets (primarily with American Airlines) that took more than 2-3 business days to go from pending to posted. All other airline ticket purchases seemed to be right in line with other regular charges, but this Air France one took a while.