Flight ticketed -- but not charged
 

Long time lurker, first time poster here.

On Feb. 14, I booked a flight. The flight was ticketed Feb. 18 (with a full ticket number beginning 114-), and I saw a pending charge on my debit card.

Sometime on or before Feb. 23, the charge dropped off my account entirely. The money is still in my account, and the flight is still ticketed.

I called El Al, who was insistent that the flight has been paid for. I called my bank, who indicated that the charge dropped off because El Al did not follow through and actually collect the pending charge that had been authorized.

I looked through old threads and saw this before on other airlines, but not El Al.

Has anybody had this happen before, and how would you proceed?

Many thanks.

Eventually their billing system will kick in and charge your card. It's practices like this that make airline tickets a good target for fraudsters who use stolen credit cards. You can book a ticket and take a flight before the charge even shows up on the stolen credit card account. If it's taking El Al over a week to actually bill your credit card, that's just another sign of their inefficiencies.

As to what to do - keep checking your reservation online every day or so until either you take your flight, or you see the charge appear on your credit card.

And welcome to flyertalk Eliyahu!

The flight is in June... here's hoping they charge the card long before then. Thanks!

Some people would just say enjoy the credit terms offered here... ;)

Anyway, LY are hardly unique in this, how about the airline charging your card, and then refunding it again for no reason?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...y-account.html