IC6A

I happen to use some Chinese based online booking company a lot. E.g. Ctrip, Elong and Zuji for some domestic deals in Hong Kong and China.

The truth is, you only need to verify billing address and cvc when you pay online with Ctrip/Zuji/Elong. QF office in Shanghai should have the same facility Ctrip has. As Ctrip use local Shanghai bank branches for business as well.

I encounter inconvenience sometimes in China. You are required to show ID when you use your card and they record ID numbers. But when I use Ctrip for online booking I never had any problems. Straight forward. No hassle.

When any banks in China sign one contract with airlines, verifying the card does not mean physically verifying the card. It can be done with CVC verifying, Visa VeriSign or Mastercard MasterCode etc...And not to mention Offline options QF has with its credit system. I do not know what contract Qf had signed with its banks in Shanghai. Maybe dave noble knows it well. But I can assure you that even in China, one smoother customer online payment method can be attained easily without extra costs based on what QF is paying now. I believe in that it is one customer service issue whether QF want to make the online payment easier for customers or to cause more inconvenient for customers.

AnonymousCoward

The truth probably is that there are few people outside China booking ex-PVG flights.

Or the truth is that QANTAS doesn't know, or doesn't care, about the complaining here. Only complaining to QANTAS might get the situation changed.

Otherwise, abide by the conditions shown *prior* to booking, or fly someone else. If you think the customer service is poor then it's your capitalist choice to fly someone else. That's the way the market works.

Dave Noble

Umm... All you have to do is pick up the phone and book over the phone with , for example, the AU or UK telephone sales if using an Australian card

If wanting to use the online booking service, then need tp comply with the restrictions which are given very clearly at the very start of the process

I still do not view it as poor customer service for the staff at Qantas UK not to circumvent this rule of Qantas CN

If there had been no advance warning and only told the customer after payment had been taken that would be different, but the warning that the ticket wouldnt be issued until the stated requirement were met were given as the 1st thing and could not easily be missed

Dave

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

If it is true that QF has a contract with the bank/payment processor in China that requires it to verify cards it accepts I wonder if that contract requires the card to be verified only at an office in Beijing or Shanghai?

I don't think anyone is disagreeing that the card should be verified, but it could be done anywhere, anyhow.

Unless, of course, this is just another way for QF to raise revenue by charging assisted booking fees and higher fuel surcharges...

I think IC6A nails it. And if QF can't see aruond that then it is not an example of good customer service.

If Qantas is going to charge an assisted booking fee for flights ex Thailand and China - because they are impossible to book online if you are in another country, then the award table should be amended with a '#' or something to say that published points levels exclude certain bookings made outside the countries of Thailand and China. Composite pricing is supposedly not allowed when it comes to airfares in Australia anymore. Just as you have to include compulsory taxes and surcharges in any published airfare, the assisted booking fee in some cases would seem compulsory.

og

I'm not debating the goodness or badness of customer service (or my poor grammer!). I am simply suggesting that QF could get around all of the angst in this thread by adding some words to their very clearly stated requirement for visual checking of the purchasing CC - wording being as per my remark above. People reading FT are likely to be aware of the phone options, but the "masses" may not be so well versed.

m320au

Ok. here's the update,

Despite the warning by email that my ticket would be cancelled if I didn't a) show up in PVG with my credit card by mid year, or b) pay twice the taxes to somehow circumvent this apparently crucial security check; the booking is still listed in My Bookings on QF website and does not appear to have been cancelled.

Having said that, I can't change anything about the booking - I have a confirmed seat but if I try to change it I get an error indicating indicating the "delivery method for this ticket is no longer valid, please select another delivery method". Of course, there is no such option to find an alternative delivery method on the QF website despite being instructed to do so.

I would be very surprised if Qantas went ahead and cancelled this booking without a) informing me or b) updating the My Bookings listing to remove the flight from my listing.

I am loathed out of principle to make my credit card transaction apparently more legitimate by simply paying twice the tax and an assisted booking fee - especially considering i've used the same card to book many prior redemption flights. So far I am planning to just turn up to PVG and see what they say.

Having said that, i can't afford to find myself stuck in PVG on 19th december.

Anyone think this is a dangerous strategy? Surely if my seat had been cancelled by now i would have received some sort of correspondence - and the booking wouldn't still appear in 'my bookings'?

Any experience with similar situation appreciated.

Lucky_man

I don't know that I would rank being in Shanghai with out a ticket as dangerous - inconvenient maybe - but not dangerous.

It may be that it is not ticketed. Check the booking in checkmytrip.com and see if there is an Eticket receipt. If not then the chances this just wont happen are looking higher.

I would be totally unsurprised if it was cancelled without telling you - just as you promised to present a card and have not told Qantas you are not going to.

I have paid the assisted booking fee and booked these (At the Chinese website price and conditions). I have also booked them on line and presented a credit card to the Shanghai office which was easy to find and get to.

Best of luck - and if you get stuck - what a great place to be stuck!

Dave Noble

Has the ticket actually been issued or is it that the reservation is just still there?

If no ticket issued, then I doubt it will be. are you going to be entering the country on a visa that requires that you have ticket out of the country? If that is the case then even more reason to get it done before you go