flew for free!!
 

It's true! So, I traveled on [XXXX :p] airline several months ago. Due to a glitch with the system as I was making my payment it errored out on the website with "payment pending". However I still got a confirmed code. Unsure if my flight was reserved I went personally to the airlines office and asked them if I could make a cash payment instead because obviously my card is not being accepted. He said he cannot take my money because it shows on his screen that it is fully paid which was bizzare because the screen clearly said "Payment status: PENDING" but at the same time "Amt due: 0.00" which seems contradictory!! Then he says if there is an issue I can pay it at the airport.

Well, at the airport they say that no further charges are due, it's all paid up!

To date (it's been 6 months!) no charges have been applied on my CC nor have I paid it any other way, in effect the flight has been absolutely FREE! ^

I wish all my transactions were this way :D

A wise old man once told me "There's nothing free in life, if you get something for free, you get to pay back with interest"..I certainly hope that this isn't the situation for you.

If I were you i'd have taken a screen shot of the website when it erred and also got the name of the ticketing agent that you spoke with should any questions arise at all.

I know you didn't ask for my $0.02, but still just sayin... :)

@chadsna, I actually begged them to take my money but they refused..you see I didn't want to show up at the airport and discover that my flight had been cancelled for non-payment.

I offered the money, they refused...it isn't my f-ing problem you know ;) And I'd love to see what kind of argument they make about not charging me for 6 months despite having my CC details? Do you think anyone is going to think they are making a rational argument....geez!

Depending on where you live, they can indeed take payment much later on. I've had things show up months after I initially handed over my credit card (slips from manual cc machines going astray then turning up again) and whilst the norm is that the charge happens around the same day, I don't believe they are obliged to take it within a short time frame, depending on local laws around such things. I'd say it was pretty easy for the airline to prove you took the flight, and therefore owe the money.

Back in 1976, I charged a tankful of gas ($5) on my BankAmericard. I was a poor student, then, watching every penny.

That charge never showed up on my bill. I stopped looking for it about three years later.

I flew on a British Midland (now bmi baby) in 1992 on a United Airlines issued ticket. The UA agent was a scatterbrain and very confused. It was issued as a separate ticket from the UA ticket, which I didn't like because of a possible mis-connect might lead to an excuse "it's on a separate ticket so tough luck".

Anyway, it never got charged.

I stayed at a hotel once and never got billed. I didn't notice because I was probably in hotels 15 nights/month that year. Exactly one year later, I received a charge on my credit card for the hotel. You never know when the computers will catch up with you!

Things like that turn up when a depatment does their internal audits. I find things like fairly often. Then we just bill customer later. It may never show but don't be surprised if at some point it does.

I tried to pull out over $1000 from an overseas ATM once but there was some sort of error and no money came out. The money was removed from my account however.

The bank that owned the ATM sent the amount back into my account and my own back also re-credited it. Despite several phone calls, they never sorted it out so I ended up $1K+ ahead. That was nearly a decade ago.

well, I have no problem paying the amount...I took the flight so I have no problem paying it! Although I think the airline needs to get their act together if they are issuing confirmed tickets without receiving full payment.

I took an Alaska cruise ~ 11 years ago and when it came time to pay my (hefty :o) drinks bill I duly handed over my CC (in fact I think they already had my CC number, I probably just authorised the bill). No immediate debit to my CC account and looked out for it for awhile and eventually forgot about it. Around 9 to 12 months later I got a bill with a dirty letter suggesting that I was a bad person for not paying it. Turns out they (not me) had my CC number wrong. I paid, but certainly let them know who I thought was responsible (and it wasn't me).

I once ordered an expensive KitchenAid mixer online for in store pickup at Linens n Things for a gift for my mom. Put in my credit card number, everything was authorized, got an email within the hour telling me to come in and pick it up, so I did. They hand over the mixer and the receipt. But, my card was never charged for it.

My guess is an employee didn't know the online pick up process (something I see very frequently at retail stores) and never actually put that I picked it up into the system, so my card was never charged. But just a wild guess. Now they've gone out of business. I wonder if they were giving away too much free stuff accidentally.

To OP and DesertNomad.. Lucky to be good.. good to be lucky..

Sometimes fortunate things happen.. its good to balance it with unfortunate situations..

nice! ;) ^

The statute of limitations is pretty long on cc transactions..sometimes payment process vendors can have a glitch, but when the airline reconciles their transactions against their cc revenue, and sees a chargeback from the credit card company, and sees you took the flight, they will dispute it and your credit card will most likely bill you. I have seen it take months and months sometimes.

In 2008, I used miles for a Y->C upgrade at the gate for an intercontinental flight (50'000 miles).

The miles were never deducted from my account...

:D

Chargebacks more likely then not happens to me.. but sometimes once in a very blue moon, the nominal charge doesn't appear..

Lucky to be good, and good to be lucky.. enjoy flying and don't worry about things you can't control.. in the end, if the oversight happens and you're above board, its' a little bit of an extra bonus..

I have had charges that never showed up, but never on something expensive. It's always been smaller charges for things...15 dollars at a drug store, 10 for lunch..usually mom and pop places too. More often, I get DOUBLE charged on stuff! Always check your bill and always keep your receipts.

I agree to go through each item spent line by line.. I check off personally 150 lines of cc expenses each month.

I actually usually don't get double charged for stuff..

Here's a poignant one. Went as a tourist to the WTC in New York on Sept 10th '01 with my wife. She bought some Christmas tree decorations for about $30 in the gift shop at the top of the tower. It never showed up on her credit card bill. It was before chip and pin and the slips had to be signed. We made a donation to charity in the months after.

Haven't had it happen for a few years now, but over the course of several years before that once or twice a year one of our debit card transactions (usually at the grocery store) never went through.

I have a Chinese UnionPay card that gets approved by many US-based POS terminals, but about half of the transactions never post, even weeks or months later. The ones that do tend to appear immediately. Transaction size doesn't seem to be the determinant, nor does type of merchant.

I'm not sure if this is a result of improperly-configured terminals, a glitch with foreign transaction processing happening on the Chinese end, or something else altogether. I've asked my Chinese bank about it, and (predictably) they have no clue about a cause....

I'm interested getting your chinese unionpay card.. since about half of the transactions never post..

This will be the best card to have in my pocket..:D

I purchased flights last year for my wife and I to go to CA to visit her parents last year - both on same intinerary, which typically comes through as one charge for each passenger of the exact same amount. Intially saw a hold for the total amount on my CC, then when the charge finalized and posted in a day or so only one charge came through.

Called the airline to check to make sure the tickets were valid and showing paid - twice the airline says yes (after multiple transfers around). Calls to bank and research on their end says they could only see one coming through and the one that didn't (held in suspense or not perfected by the airline). They say will probably come through at some point when they reconcile. 16 months later nothing has come through long after the flights were taken. I made every attempt to get it straight on my end.

Also a couple years ago had a cab ride in Memphis not post to my corporate AMEX till 4 months later. Was a manual reciept so likely lost in the shuffle for a while.

When my daughter was 7 we made our annual trek from BOS to LHR to visit family and had a great time. When we got back we were looking at our frequent flyer miles and it turned out my daughter had been credited with the miles twice so she got to gold status before we did! :)

Many years ago, I had a United flight fail to post to my FF account. I called them and they insisted that I hadn't flown - I was a no-show, so no miles. The agent said "I can't change the system to make it appear that you've flown, but I can certainly change your unused ticket for you. ;)"

I think the change fee was $50 at the time and you didn't immediately lose all ticket value on a no-show...basically the agent was acknowledging that somehow the system screwed up and she was giving me that original flight, sans miles, for $50. I thought it was funny that they couldn't just accept my original money and post my miles...it was a semi-expensive ticket, not one that a mileage runner would buy, purposely no-show, and then call to claim they really flew.

There's always a few vendors who run charges through manually, and sometimes I get a call months after, letting me know that they just charged my cc, and forgot to process it for one reason or another..

While an inexperienced summer bank teller I had a couple customers return money once they realized I overpaid them. Surprising how honest people are...But I am guessing most would have kept the cash had it come from an ATM.

luck
 

Great to see many positive experiences rather than problems. A few years ago I was flying to HNL once a month on UA. Always used upgrade certificates that could be bought. One evening the flight was full, so I didn't buy upgrade certificates. Once on though, it was clear that several of the 1st class passengers didn't show. Waited until the door was about to close and then asked if I could upgrade. The agent said sure and asked for my certificates. Told her I needed to buy them. She looked at the purser who said that the flight was going and then smiled and said OK move up. Hadn't planned it this way and would have been happy to pay. Later, another passenger asked to move up who had been on the wait list and was denied. When he pointed at me and complained, the comment was, "You weren't fast enough!"

It was good you wanted to pay.. Demonstrated that you weren't trying to get a free ride, and got rewarded for it..

FAs make the call and its' final.. Glad it worked out for a paying customer that deserved it so..

It's not for a flight, but I once had this situation after a purchase :

I worked hard to save enough and buy a $1000 reflex camera, and I ended up saving $300 more so I added a compact camera to use for parties or bad conditions.

When I they processed my CC at the shop, it showed : "trouble with payment, take your CC back" on my screen, and the cashier told me "no, that's alright peyment confirmed.

After 3 months, (and now 4 years) I was never charged. $1300 worth cameras for free. I eventually bought a $700 lens for the reflex in the same shop, which was charged.

I think I was just lucky that the bug happened on me, and as for the shop, they didn't lose their customer anyway. I don't feel like I stole from them, as it just didn't work and that's life, and it is also a little amount disappeared on the million $ statements of the company, though I understand that it may bring some ethical doubts.

I would be happy to have my free flight one day, but I've had my chance already so I hope it'll happen to others, and possibly when they book premium!

I think this happened (or at least was more likely to happen) since you're in Japan.
Btw, I thought the Japanese were good at math. How could you have overpaid so many people?

All these stories of people not getting charged are pretty awesome. Sad for me since nothing like that ever happened to me :(

why came nobody to answer the most obvious question of all... how many miles were credited if any? you beat every cents per mile ratio

Several years ago, I had booked economy flights for my husband and I to go EDI-EWR-FLL. I was checking my booking online when one leg of the return journey disappeared so I phoned to query it and the agent said she would fix it and it would show online again in about 15 minutes. While I was on the phone, I queried how much it would cost to upgrade the EWR-EDI return leg and was told some outrageous amount. I immediately told the agent that it was far too expensive for me. However when I looked online next it was showing us in first class for the leg I asked about.
We kept waiting for the mistake to be rectified but it wasn't and we had a fantastic first class flight home - somthing we could never have afforded ourselves. The only problem is it has ruined travelling in economy!!

Just last week I noticed a couple of charges from a mom and pop restaurant hadn't posted. The total was probably only $50.

I did receive a "nearly" free flight. My inbound flight was delayed due to weather and I was automatically rebooked for the next day. However, I hustled over to the gate and made my flight home.

I was looking at my e-credits a few weeks later and noticed a fairly sizable one. I called in to ask what it was and we figured it out. I told the CSR I actually made the flight. She said, she couldn't remove it and it was mine to use. So, I used it.:)

Got a free webcam ($49 value) once. Ordered one from buy.com, and when the status showed as delivered, I still did not get the item. Had a chat with their customer rep. and was shipped another one. On the next day, the apartment management office called that they have a package by my name. The original item was delivered to another apartment and they had sent it to the apartment office. Received both the webcams on the same day and called buy.com - they said as the item has already been shipped, there's no need to send one back. Remained a loyal buy.com customer for long, even had a buy.com chase CC.

My best 'free' story was a few years ago eating dinner at Il Fornio in San Jose with a pretty lareg group. After a good meal and mutliple bottles of wine we started dessert and the fire alarm went off. No smoke so we sat and finsihed dessert until a couple of fireman came in and evacuated the place. We stood outside for about an hour but they never let anyone back in. I assume their insurance picked of the losses.

My local Home Depot installed those self-serve lines. I was one of the first to use them one morning when I bought some goodies for about $53. I put cash in and my change was supposed to be something like $17. the machine spit out about $92 in cash and a few coins. There were guys in ties watching the process so I told them that these machines are great, I'll definitely shop here more often. They were all smiles until I flashed my extra cash and told them what had happened. Their smiles dropped.
Apparently someone had put the bills into the wrong trays in the machine.

I always return extra change. Most of the time, it's going to come out of the cashier's pocket and I'd feel terrible if I took money from someone like that.
At Lowe's a couple of months ago, I bought a $90 battery charger along with about $500 in building materials. When the total came to about $100 less than my mental math, I pulled the cart over and checked the receipt. They didn't charge me for the charger. I recognized the opportunity to gut-check my 18 YO son to I told him, "check it out, they didn't charge me for the battery charger" he immediately said, "well, let's go back". I'm soooo proud of him. (He's in college to be a police officer right now.)