vincentsjtu

Anyone has problems paying on lifemiles?

I redeemed two tickets recently, but cannot pay by any of my credit card, so I have to call lifemiles to pay my redeemed ticket which cost much more USD than pay online

Both tickets are for flights in 7 days, is that the problem? just like UNITED redemption, URGENT FEE?

elusive1

Make sure the billing email is the same as the one listed in account.

jarino

It's silly for frequent travellers, but it seems that Lifemiles and some card issuers like these three countries to match:
country of billing address = country of card issuer = country of IP address used

SingaporeDon

Haven't had any problems paying even when all three did not match including an award redemption a month or so ago.

mlqsko

In 99% of the cases it is your card issuer that is making the fuss. They especially like "offshore" transactions. IP/email means nothing.

Some issuers are ultra overprotective of their card holders.

mattack4000

I am running into this problem. What should I do?

MultiFlyer

Contact your card issuer.

skimthetrees

I had problems trying to purchase Lifemiles for the first time this weekend. The system errored out multiple times online using two different credit cards. Multiple calls to Lifemiles did not help. They took my billing information then sent me to the automated credit card entry. The phone automated card entry usually failed before I got my information in. The one time I got my information in and the system accepted it the phone agent told me my card was declined but when I called Amex they said they had never seen a charge come in.

Part of the problem may be language difficulties with the phone agents. I think they misheard my billing information. I should have had them read it back to me.

Eventually I was able to get the payment processed online but I do not know exactly why since I made a couple of changes in the successful attempt. I used a different Visa card (I had previously tried both Amex and a different Visa card) but I think the most likely reason it went through finally is because I entered my street address differently. I live on a court. I always abbreviate "Court" to "Ct" in my address because this is the way pretty much all merchants in the US process it and this is the way it is listed with the card issuers. When I spelled out "Court" instead of abbreviating it the charge went through finally.

Good grief. Six calls and over an hours worth of time spent on hold and Lifemiles could not resolve the issue over the phone. Thank goodness I finally figured out the right Mojo to get it to work. Hopefully this information will help someone else.

mlqsko

Nobody cares about the street address these days. You can use the White house address if you want.

Most likely this card didn't have the extreme offshore fraud protection and this is the reason it went through unlike the other two.

skimthetrees

Could be. It is strange that Amex would not have seen the denial and told me about it when I called to ask but I have not specifically requested Amex to enable offshore purchases. Somehow I assumed Amex to be more global. The one Visa that did go through they did notify me a couple of years back after I took a couple of international trips that the card was permanently authorized for international purchases and I no longer needed to call in to authorize them so you are probably right. I still cannot fathom how Amex would not see a rejected charge, they claimed no charge was ever submitted. Next time before I use the Amex I will call in to pre-authorize and see if that works.

mattack4000

I have 3 that had the same problem. I called their office and they told me to call back in the morning. Does anyone know how long they hold the tickets?

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

What's the consensus with handling a declined card/booking? I ran into difficulties last night, but I managed to write down the record locator.

I'll call my bank this morning to release the hold, but do I need to contact LM to ticket the current booking, or can I just make a new booking and pay online? (seats are available)

I don't want to have to call LM if I can avoid it. Will the failed booking just auto-cancel after three days?

mattack4000

They are actually quite easy to deal with if you call the right place. Make sure you call the Lifemiles line

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

Actually not too bad! I just got off the phone with them. Total call including hold time was about 12 minutes. The LM department cancelled the current 'shell' (on hold) and I can book the other seat. They would have processed payment if i had the last seat.