Questions about booking partner award via US service center
May 23, 2011, 9:27 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Washington, DC area
Programs: Air: Many; Hotel: HH D, HY G, IHG P, MR S, RR
Posts: 504
Questions about booking partner award via US service center
Hi, I did some searches but didn't see answers to my specific questions or really recent information about a few issues:
1. For purchasing an award ticket through the US service center on the telephone, not via the BA website, has anyone had any experiences with their US based credit cards assessing a foreign transaction fee on the cash payment (i.e., YQ, tax, fees) associated with the ticket?
A BA CSR told me the charges would be processed in the US and denominated in USD, but cautioned that some credit card issuers might code BA as "foreign" anyway. I also read some posts in this forum from last year in which other US based people were charged a foreign transaction fee when making purchases on BA.com with certain US credit cards. I was thinking about using my Citi AA MC to purchase my ticket but know that Citi loves to charge foreign transaction fees :-(, so I was wondering if anyone had any recent experiences to share.
2. For a partner award booked with BA miles and flying on CX, would there be any requirement to provide the credit card I used for the purchase when I travel (I'm asking b/c I might use a card for the purcahse that I decide not to renew before my trip)?
3. Has BA recently tightened things up in terms of when it waives the telephone booking fee for transactions at the US Service Center?
I am trying to book a partner award for which I cannot determine availability on the BA website, but I also am planning to include a stopover. I know that tickets with a stopover cannot be booked online, but in the past (my experience and lots of other reports on here), BA has waived telephone booking fees in these situations. The agent I spoke to today was not willing to waive the fee since the stopover cannot be booked online, but an agent I spoke to last weekend about the same itinerary proactively offered that the fee would be waived due to the BA website issues with not displaying partner availability on routes BA serves (unfortunately, I wasn't ready to book when I talked to the first agent)
Thanks in advance for any responses!
1. For purchasing an award ticket through the US service center on the telephone, not via the BA website, has anyone had any experiences with their US based credit cards assessing a foreign transaction fee on the cash payment (i.e., YQ, tax, fees) associated with the ticket?
A BA CSR told me the charges would be processed in the US and denominated in USD, but cautioned that some credit card issuers might code BA as "foreign" anyway. I also read some posts in this forum from last year in which other US based people were charged a foreign transaction fee when making purchases on BA.com with certain US credit cards. I was thinking about using my Citi AA MC to purchase my ticket but know that Citi loves to charge foreign transaction fees :-(, so I was wondering if anyone had any recent experiences to share.
2. For a partner award booked with BA miles and flying on CX, would there be any requirement to provide the credit card I used for the purchase when I travel (I'm asking b/c I might use a card for the purcahse that I decide not to renew before my trip)?
3. Has BA recently tightened things up in terms of when it waives the telephone booking fee for transactions at the US Service Center?
I am trying to book a partner award for which I cannot determine availability on the BA website, but I also am planning to include a stopover. I know that tickets with a stopover cannot be booked online, but in the past (my experience and lots of other reports on here), BA has waived telephone booking fees in these situations. The agent I spoke to today was not willing to waive the fee since the stopover cannot be booked online, but an agent I spoke to last weekend about the same itinerary proactively offered that the fee would be waived due to the BA website issues with not displaying partner availability on routes BA serves (unfortunately, I wasn't ready to book when I talked to the first agent)
Thanks in advance for any responses!
