Double charged by Delta for same flight.
 

Hey guys

So, I booked a flight on Delta.com using my credit card last May 23rd for a flight from JFK-SAN which cost 600$ (comfort+), while booking there was no errors, and only clicked the pay button once. After paying it did hold funds from my credit limit and after a day the charge for the ticket posted on my account. Earlier today as I was checking my credit card account my limit wasn't right. Called up my credit card company to ask, they told me there was another charge which showed as floating which was charged May 24th for the same amount 600$ by Delta. My bank told me to call again since it was still on hold or floating and not posted on my account yet. I then called up Delta which they said under my name and my credit card used showed only my booking for 1 ticket JFK-SAN which was 600$. Delta advised me that it might be a glitch on their end and to see if the double charge really gets posted by the next business day which is this Monday. Anyone had this thing occur to them previously?

If it does get posted into my account, is it a good idea to communicate with my bank only or with delta too?

I guarantee you two transactions of the same amount won't post. This "pending transaction" nonsense happens all the time.

Ow so, it is a glitch on Delta then.. It seems weird though. Posted the first then charges me again a day after. I was just making sure though. 600$ is alot of money too.

Unless the CL issue is a problem for you, I would not do anything until your ticket has been flown. You have a minimum of 60 days from the date the duplicate charge actually posts (if it does) to dispute. I suggest this not because you have any obligation to wait, but because a chargeback on a ticket can easily result in DL cancelling it and then you having to spend hours on the phone to get it reinstated.

If for some reason that $600 pending item does post, simply dispute it as a duplicate charge. You can do this online with most CC issuers and there is generally an option for that or something similar. You will then see a temporary credit relatively immediately, that will restore your CL to wherever it ought to be and the temporary credit will eventually become permanent when DL does not provide documentation for a second ticket.

Thanks for the response. Hopefully I won't have to dispute, and hope it just falls out.

I think it will. Not just Delta, but I have seen these floating or pending charges, particularly for travel, hang for several days on my Amex. Just a couple weeks ago, when I checked into the hotel, they put a pending charge on for more than my hotel stay. I checked out the next day, the final charge posted to my account, but the pending charge didn't disappear for another day or two.

I had a similar experience a couple of months ago. When the receptionist at my eye doctor ran my DL Amex, she told me it had been denied. I asked her to try again and it went through the second time. The next day I noticed two identical charges in my pending section, so the first must have gone through despite the denial. I decided to wait and see what happened, and only one of the charges ever posted. IME, Amex handles these better than some other companies. I've heard people saying that with some cards they were denied because they visited the same store twice in the same day. Much easier on me if they let things that aren't outright red flags go through and then sort them out while they're still pending.

Not just Delta or airlines. Happens with all companies at times. Weird thing is for me when I make a DL purchase it never shows as a pending transaction. It simply posts. I know DL uses cardnialcommerce as part of online card approval. Not sure how they work exactly.

In your case either a duplicate authorization was obtained, or for some reason the actual charge didn't include the authorization number. Thus it doesn't realize a charge posted for it.

Thanks. But how did it do an authorization on May 23 then another authorization on May 24. Either way hopefully it falls off. And I think I will still book with delta.

I've only one seen refunds for small taxes (~$25 USD per ticket for 3 tickets) not ever go through or post incorrectly despite DL swearing it was fine on their end.

DL finally gave me their refund authorization numbers for each ticket. I worked with my bank and these numbers and it worked out.

Had a similar issue with a hotel; they refunded 3 nights of resort fees as three identical refunds back to back; I only saw two post.

Turns out their internal system froze one of the three refunds as a duplicate; once they verified that they refunded it again which actually posted as the third refund.

Pending charges on a credit card are not a "glitch." They are a common occurrence with numerous different vendors (hotels, airlines, others) and normally drop off after a few days.

No, Delta did not authorize twice. From what I read here, this is my take:

• May23, DL did the authorization. This posts (if approved) to your acct as a "pending(floating??) transaction". It counts against your credit line, but is NOT a billable transaction that you owe anything for. It will never show on your statement.
• May24, DL ticketed the reservation and sent a "record of charge" to your cc bank with the ticket number to prove that the purchase was completed. This posts to your cc acct as a "real" transaction. It is billable and will be on your next statement.

ANY credit card purchase where the merchant did an approval first (so practically all transactions) have these 2 transactions postings: 1) the authorization (pending) 2) the record of charge (real).
When all works ok, the pending transaction is deleted at the same time the real transaction is posted. So from your point of view, you think of it as one transaction. But behind the scenes, it's always two.
For the "auto delete" of the pending transaction to happen, the associated record of charge must match to it. Many things can cause the match to fail but most likely it's some batch job held up somewhere. It could the DL or credit card end.

Any pending transaction that doesn't get matched/deleted will eventually expire. At that time, the "hold" against your credit line for that amount will be released. The expiration time frame is variable, but think of it as 7 days +/- a day or 2 and you'd be close most of the time. As long as the pending transaction isn't pushing you up to your credit limit, it's completely harmless. As others have noted, this goes on all the time. It usually goes un-noticed, but airline purchases tend to be larger amounts thus more 'visible'.

I've been finding it very frustrating recently to deal with preauthorization and pending charges in that many phone agents don't know how to identify them and are very confused when you ask whether something has posted as an actual charge or not.

IMO the OP should check very carefully for duplicate receipts with different ticket numbers in email and by searching delta.dumb and the Saudia website. It seems unlikely, but just in case two tickets were issued, it would be better to deal with this before the flight. Assuming that there hasn't (yet) been any schedule change or other reason for a reissue, there should only be a single 006- ticket number which is the same number on every piece on documentation related to the trip.

Wait until it happens on a $17K D1 ticket. That really cuts into your available CL — temporarily anyway.

AMEX shows the flight details (including ticket number) if you look at the online statement and click the entry. That would be where I would start. And that also shows the DL/AMEX charge ref number in case one does has to argue it out.

I tend to go with the crowd though. The "phantom" charge is likely to vanish in a few days.