Can't book award flight because all cards declined
#16
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: ATL
Programs: DL DM, Hyatt LT DM, Wyndham DM, Hertz PC, HH Gold, SPG Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 2,038
Not quite on topic, but I was just talking to Chase about our Sapphire Reserve card and the agent mentioned that even though you can enter your international travel plans online, you can only enter the dates by calling in. He said that without the dates some of our international charges could cause them to temporarily suspend the card. It makes absolutely no sense that they can't just add the date feature on their website imo.
My Chase card they want the dates.
#17
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: HNL
Programs: DL PM/1MM, BW DE (lifetime), HH DE, Marriott PE (lifetime), National Emerald Executive
Posts: 7,205
The address verification system hasn't changed in years for Res. Don't know quite what you're talking about here. We have an error message sent to us when the address is wrong, if the CID/Expiration Date is wrong, if the card number is wrong, etc.
If the response comes back that card is declined, it means all information on Delta's side is correct, but the bank isn't authorizing the charge. This can be for a variety of reasons, the most likely is that there are not enough funds on the card.
Now this is where things COULD'VE been caused by the rep on the Delta side. If they don't put in the international billing address properly (there's a separate field for non US/Canada addresses), the card would've errored out due to the address being put in incorrectly. But it still pulls pending funds from the card. Then, when the address is inputted correctly, the agent wouldn't have received the wrong address, but not enough funds (or over a daily limit/suspected fraud) were available.
There was an update about 18 months ago that briefly caused hangups with card payments, but that had nothing to do with the billing address. It was quickly fixed.
If the response comes back that card is declined, it means all information on Delta's side is correct, but the bank isn't authorizing the charge. This can be for a variety of reasons, the most likely is that there are not enough funds on the card.
Now this is where things COULD'VE been caused by the rep on the Delta side. If they don't put in the international billing address properly (there's a separate field for non US/Canada addresses), the card would've errored out due to the address being put in incorrectly. But it still pulls pending funds from the card. Then, when the address is inputted correctly, the agent wouldn't have received the wrong address, but not enough funds (or over a daily limit/suspected fraud) were available.
There was an update about 18 months ago that briefly caused hangups with card payments, but that had nothing to do with the billing address. It was quickly fixed.
#19
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Portland, OR
Programs: DL MM Plat, PC&HH Gold
Posts: 2,602
#20
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: NYC
Posts: 27,231
Oddly I purchased two refundable tickets on VX a week or so ago that showed up as one transaction on the CC. The refunds came through separately though. Weird. Normally each ticket is charged individually.
#21
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Northern Nevada
Programs: DL,EK
Posts: 1,652
It is always like this when I book DL tickets (even paid) that involve other airlines. I still miss the old NW website that worked better than any other site before or since.
#22
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: San Antonio
Programs: DL DM, Former AA EXP now AY Plat, AC 75K, NW Plat, Former CO Gold, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 27,042
There is still an ongoing issue (unless recently fixed at last, I've been told it's been on the list of major bugs to fix for years now) cards where the issuer doesn't support AVS and the AVS response is X. As some who've been involved in testing and rolling it out tell me, devs forgot to put in handling for that so the system simply hangs. I've had that confirmed to me several times. Basically, phone reps need to call the Delta merchant account processor and do phone auth, but most get confused and don't know how to properly do that (they need to find the #, the Delta merchant account, etc., and then key in the phone authorization properly in the system - all things that supposedly "Delta no longer trains" its staff in and that are hardly well documented). Online it works, but doesn't work by phone. By phone only works in the old reservations system/interface that was at least less buggy. Other than phone auth, that is the only other workaround for Delta res agents.
#23
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Portland, OR
Programs: DL MM Plat, PC&HH Gold
Posts: 2,602
They finally figured it out - seems my reservation was corrupted somehow and they had to rebuild it. Finally got tickets booked for the award and mostly in J. The last two-hour hop is Y but I'll live.
It is always like this when I book DL tickets (even paid) that involve other airlines. I still miss the old NW website that worked better than any other site before or since.
It is always like this when I book DL tickets (even paid) that involve other airlines. I still miss the old NW website that worked better than any other site before or since.
#24
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: HNL
Programs: DL PM/1MM, BW DE (lifetime), HH DE, Marriott PE (lifetime), National Emerald Executive
Posts: 7,205
Very few merchants train staff in processing authorizations by phone. Mainly since for most that would mean their system is offline and a manual transaction would need be submitted. It just normally doesnt happen much For those times the system is online, but need a manual authorization number.
#25
Join Date: Apr 2017
Programs: Delta Sky Miles, Hilton Honors
Posts: 29
Delta customer service tells me Delta requires a street address and number- unfortunately my card is billed to work and we don't have a street address (our E-911 and USPS address lack a street name/number.) One of the delta supervisors helped me figure out a fake address that had enough of the actual address to validate, and still had what looked like a street address to it (even if the street is non existent.) She told me they do that for lot of military guys whose address is building XXX.
Never had a problem with other airlines, hotels, vendors etc. Nor does Delta have a problem when they receive the reservation electronically.
#26
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: HNL
Programs: DL PM/1MM, BW DE (lifetime), HH DE, Marriott PE (lifetime), National Emerald Executive
Posts: 7,205
Delta customer service tells me Delta requires a street address and number- unfortunately my card is billed to work and we don't have a street address (our E-911 and USPS address lack a street name/number.) One of the delta supervisors helped me figure out a fake address that had enough of the actual address to validate, and still had what looked like a street address to it (even if the street is non existent.) She told me they do that for lot of military guys whose address is building XXX.
Never had a problem with other airlines, hotels, vendors etc. Nor does Delta have a problem when they receive the reservation electronically.
Never had a problem with other airlines, hotels, vendors etc. Nor does Delta have a problem when they receive the reservation electronically.
One workaround is to get a phone rep to put the reservation together. Have them end it (save it). Then load it up online and see if you can complete the purchase it and ticket it online. That will often (not always) work.
#27
Join Date: Apr 2016
Posts: 159
There is still an ongoing issue (unless recently fixed at last, I've been told it's been on the list of major bugs to fix for years now) cards where the issuer doesn't support AVS and the AVS response is X. As some who've been involved in testing and rolling it out tell me, devs forgot to put in handling for that so the system simply hangs. I've had that confirmed to me several times. Basically, phone reps need to call the Delta merchant account processor and do phone auth, but most get confused and don't know how to properly do that (they need to find the #, the Delta merchant account, etc., and then key in the phone authorization properly in the system - all things that supposedly "Delta no longer trains" its staff in and that are hardly well documented). Online it works, but doesn't work by phone. By phone only works in the old reservations system/interface that was at least less buggy. Other than phone auth, that is the only other workaround for Delta res agents.
There is no "old" reservation interface. The current GUI rolled out in early 2013 and the old one was retired summer of 2013. There's Delta Term, which hasn't been worked in by frontline res reps in at least 10 years.
It's not taught to frontline reps anymore because the GUI can do all but 2 things an agent comes across in 99.9% of phone calls. (In case you're wondering, the two things are checking Minimum Connection Time, and unhooking a voucher from a PNR not yet ticketed. And both of those things ARE taught.) Now, to be fair, there are some other functions that can help a frontline specialist, like looking into an old PNR, checking the Upgrade Waitlist, etc. While there is a way to run cards through in DeltaTerm, it uses the exact same address verification system as the GUI, and I haven't had to use it in over a year, and that was because, as I mentioned earlier, a release of the GUI did have a bug that caused forms of payment to get hung up.
#28
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2005
Programs: Delta
Posts: 87
The address verification system hasn't changed in years for Res. Don't know quite what you're talking about here. We have an error message sent to us when the address is wrong, if the CID/Expiration Date is wrong, if the card number is wrong, etc.
If the response comes back that card is declined, it means all information on Delta's side is correct, but the bank isn't authorizing the charge. This can be for a variety of reasons, the most likely is that there are not enough funds on the card.
...
There is no "old" reservation interface. The current GUI rolled out in early 2013 and the old one was retired summer of 2013. There's Delta Term, which hasn't been worked in by frontline res reps in at least 10 years.
If the response comes back that card is declined, it means all information on Delta's side is correct, but the bank isn't authorizing the charge. This can be for a variety of reasons, the most likely is that there are not enough funds on the card.
...
There is no "old" reservation interface. The current GUI rolled out in early 2013 and the old one was retired summer of 2013. There's Delta Term, which hasn't been worked in by frontline res reps in at least 10 years.
In my case I can only say that the agent described the transactions as card declined yet my bank has given me 5 authorisation codes which shows that they should not have been. This wasn't a funds issue as 3 of those 4 were for the full amount. The first was actually for just one of the tickets. Today the agent stated that the transactions must have been declined as no ticket was issued.
During today's successful transaction I heard the agent ask herself why line 2 of the address was a problem, and then she said she'd have to have a colleague on "another system" re-enter my card details so I had to give them again.
#29
Join Date: Apr 2016
Posts: 159
In my case I can only say that the agent described the transactions as card declined yet my bank has given me 5 authorisation codes which shows that they should not have been. This wasn't a funds issue as 3 of those 4 were for the full amount. The first was actually for just one of the tickets. Today the agent stated that the transactions must have been declined as no ticket was issued.
During today's successful transaction I heard the agent ask herself why line 2 of the address was a problem, and then she said she'd have to have a colleague on "another system" re-enter my card details so I had to give them again.
During today's successful transaction I heard the agent ask herself why line 2 of the address was a problem, and then she said she'd have to have a colleague on "another system" re-enter my card details so I had to give them again.
I believe I've dealt with them once, when a customer had a billing address on a US Military Base overseas.