luckyjim

I have an Iberia flight coming up next week which was booked eleven months ago. I received a confirmation email which seemed normal - "The Booking Was Made Correctly" in large letters at the top of the confirmation emai etc. I now know having read other threads on here that a ‘confirmed booking’ is not the same as a ticket to fly.

Unable to find the reservation on line, I called customer services today and learned that Amex rejected the transaction as they deemed it suspicious. Amex have a habit of doing this but that is another story. However, I was not informed of this either by Amex or Iberia. I had no reason to believe that I did not have a confirmed booking. No tickets were issued it seems but the email had a link for me to print my boarding pass – looked like a perfectly normal 'confirmed' booking to me.

After a lengthy discussion with customer services, the only option given to me was to re-book the cheapest seats available at todays’ prices (several hundred pound more expensive ) and to raise a compliant. I have done so as the other elements of the trip cannot be cancelled.

Just wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation.

craigthemif

For many of us it is second nature to check our bookings for an e-ticket number, and also to manage it online (seat selection, etc.) to make sure that everything has been processed correctly. We also tend to notice the big charge going through the credit card (or the lack of an expected charge).

But it certainly sounds like an unfortunate situation. Credit cards being declined happens all of the time. It seems odd that a booking would go through fine but then Amex decline the charge after some thought.

luckyjim

So, this is the reply from Iberia.

Thank you for your notification regarding flight IBXXXX of 27/10/2018.

We accept all credit cards at Iberia. However, in certain circumstances, payment may not be made due to restrictions in the country, either for customs or security reasons as it was your case. It was your bank who waved it away as fraud control, so please contact them directly.

Kind regards,
Iberia Customer Services

Completely (deliberately?) missed the point. Phoned Customer Services and they said 'We don't deal with complaint by phone' and hung up before I could say anything else.

This seems to be the modern way - make it so difficult for customers to complain that they just give up.

tobsw

I am not sure what you are actually trying to achieve with all this. Have you contacted with Amex? They must have some record (or not) of that transaction, and know what happened; more so if you say there is some previous history.

The first thing I do when booking flights is: make sure I hae an E-ticket number and, it´s paid.

In your case, I think there´s only one to blame.

SPiKA85

After 11 months... you never noticed that your credit card was never charged by Iberia?
Sorry but I think you are the one to blame...

Ldnn1

343

On a regular basis, if you don't pay, the service will not be provided. I think the OP are not telling all facts, but IMO Iberia in this case is not the responsible. It is the OP bank and himself.

tobsw

IMHO, the OP thought "look, IB hasn't taken any payment and my booking shows as confirmed". That's a very naive attitude.

And it's not unique to IB - this can happen with ALL airlines: they are able to create *confirmed* bookings without taking payment. My last experience was with Flying Blue, where I tried to spend some miles to book a Bangkok Air flight. The front of office couldn't take payment, so they *said* to me that they would create the booking and the back of office would get back to me for payment. Reality was that the back of office never got back to me, in the meantime, I booked the flight with cash (good promo came up) and the booking still shows in my FlyingBlue dashboard.

luckyjim

Actually many Airlines don't issue e-tickets numbers - Ryanair don't, SouthWest don't - the booking confirmation number is all you need to check in online and obtain your boarding pass(es). Different airlines do things in different ways. As I haven't flown with Iberia before there was no reason to suspect that this was anything other than a normal confirmed booking. Had I clicked on the 'get your boarding pass' link I would, apparently, have been issued with an invalid boarding pass. .

The fact that Amex rejected the transaction is not in dispute. The problem is that Iberia issued a Booking Confirmation - with no caveats - before they had successfully processed the payment.

Err.. no, why would I do that? The transaction appeared to go through as normal and I received a confirmation email a few minutes later. If I had any reason to think there was a problem with the payment I would have sorted it out at the time.

tobsw

Since you know every airline works different, why didn´t you check the "conditions of carriage" for Iberia? In the Iberia "conditions of carriage" you need a ticket. If your booking isn´t associated with a ticket, you can´t travel.

Ignorance of the T&C/conditions of carriage is no excuse

craigthemif

I think some of you are being rather harsh on the OP.

Receiving a confirmation email from a major airline shouldn't automatically lead to the assumption that somebody screwed up and your e-ticket wasn't issued after all.

However, at some point it really is incumbent on the passenger to manage their booking and make sure everything is in order, especially when payment didn't go through. You can't just blame others.

Often1

OP is barking up the wrong tree. OP never paid for this ticket. That may have been occasioned by a vendor OP chose, e.g. Amex, but nonetheless no different than using a check drawn on insufficient funds or counterfeit currency. The ticket thus was not issued. As a ticket is a precondition to boarding an aircraft, it was just as important for OP to check that he had one as it was for him to have his passport or a visa if traveling to a place which required either or both.

This brings us to Amex. OP seems focused on IB, when he should be speaking with Amex. The question to OP is what happened when he called Amex? What was suspicious and why did Amex not tell him that his charge had been declined? There are any number of reasons for this, but rather than speculating, OP should provide that information.

If Amex wrongly denied the charge, perhaps it is liable for OP's out-of-pocket costs here. But, IB, not having been paid, did not issue a ticket.

luckyjim

On that point, it comes down to whether or not it was reasonable for me to assume that my ticket WAS associated with a valid ticket. Can Iberia argue that I should have spotted the absence of an e-ticket number and ignored all the positive indicators "The Booking Was Made Correctly' etc.

Often1

Why don't you simply provide all of the relevant detail, rather than picking and choosing points for discussion.

IB does not have to "argue" anything. IB wws not paid so it did not issue a ticket. You appear to be quite sophisticated and to understand how other carriers which do not interline work. So, why not provide the relevant detail here?

The question, which has not been posed by multiple people is,
1. What did Amex say when you called?
2. Why did Amex decline your request for the extension of credit.

luckyjim

Iberia have already said that Amex rejected the transaction because they deemed it suspicious. This does happen from time to time when purchasing goods and services overseas. Why do I need to contact Amex to confirm this? It does not change the situation.