paid upgrade copay but charge doesn't post?
 

I plan to contact CO (one pass in this case) for a BF copay transaction that appear to have fallen off the track. I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced something similar.

A few days after I called CO to upgrade to BF, I checked online to confirm the amount of mileage deduction (at co.com) and also my credit card that there was a pending transaction (authorization) for the correct amount of cash copay. However since the pending transaction didn't clear in a timely manner after another week I called the credit card company, they say everything is fine and sometimes a "merchant" may take weeks to submit an official transaction. Another few weeks went by and the credit card billing cycle ended but the authorization didn't get posted to my statement nor did the pending amount stay in my account (as per inference from available credit). This happened while I was overseas and I just flew back tonight and
would be contacting CO in a day or two -- I'm too eager to hand over $ over to them :p

It's unclear whether you've actually flown the flight and been upgraded to BF. If you have, and they haven't charged you yet, wait, they should catch up (and if after 2 weeks they haven't, then you could call them and remind them to charge you, if you are honest and so inclined).

If you have not yet flown the flight and your upgrade has yet to materialize, then don't fret; they may simply be holding back on the transaction to see if they need to charge you. Makes no sense to charge you and refund if your upgrade doesn't clear.

In my experience, I've had copays post to my Amex in advance of the flight, I've also had them post after the flight and the upgrade is cleared, and I've had them never post (but get authorized) in the case where I reserved an upgrade but it never cleared.

I've had the same behavior on mileage deductions; sometimes miles get deducted immediately; other times not. In one case, deducted for the outbound but not for the return.

Why the variability, I don't know, perhaps it's something about whether the UG is likely to clear, the number of days until the flight, class of service or other factors.

While it doesn't make sense, it is their policy. They are supposed to charge immediately and then refund if it doesn't clear.

The BF upgrade was available and cleared at the time of my request (a little more than a month ago) and I've completed said travel as of yesterday. The good thing is that it looks like I'd qualify for double EQM for the inbound flight, great timing :D

Perhaps as suggested by previous poster that I should wait a couple weeks before contacting CO to see how soon their system would pick it up on its own.

As suggested by previous posters, I'd been waiting over several months hoping CO would figure it out on their own but this did not happen. So two weeks ago I contacted CO (actually OnePass as it's for copay of BF upgrade) via email requesting them to look into the missing charge. I have not heard back a thing aside from the auto-reply for receipt of my email.

How much longer should I wait before (a) contact CO again or (b) forget about it and just keep the money?

Just don't spend the money for a while still, but don't worry about paying them. They messed up, not you.

You've already contacted them a few times and nothing, so I don't see any further action required on your part and you should not feel guilty at all.

Wow, it must be the power of FT - within 24 hrs of my posting here I received an email reply from CO that the charge is now re-submitted to the credit card number on file. They managed to misspell my last name in the reply letter but I appreciated the fact that its from a real person.

I nominate myself to be one of the most honest and loyal customers. I wish Santa would send me some reward miles for being good this year; or I can always hope for DEQM next year :cool:

I think the only thing Santa is going to say is "WHY IN THE WORLD" would you remind them to bill you?

Certainly.

With the difficulty that CO has given me on correcting overcharges, I would certainly lay low on an undercharge.

Because for me its the right thing to do. I had 0 miles on CO at the beginning of the year and became an Gold Elite (with the help of DEQM) this year. I didn't get special treatment from CO but the few times I spoke with CO the phone agents were knowledgeable, courteous and patient. I also met one very nice gate agent who explained that since I reached Silver over the weekend my newly earned status didn't reflect in the EUA for a Monday flight but he could rectify it by manually adding me to the upgrade list -- I was pleasantly surprised an hour later that the upgrade was cleared. People may have varying experiences with an airline; so far CO and its employees I came across have been on my good list and I like to return the Kama by doing the right thing even if I had to go out of my way to reach out to them.