Did Air Asia Block My Card ?

[bubu]

Hi all ...

I was just trying to book some cheap flights ... because they have a 10 Baht special at the moment.

But ... I can try different dates, different flights ... I always receive the message that my card was declined.

I had the same error some weeks ago when I tried to book some price specials.

Are farang cards blocked? What do you think?

Is there anybody who could book today?

[GuestHouse]

Call your card company and ask if they have declined any payments, if so get the block removed and try again.

If not tell them of your suspicions.

(But check that your card company has not blocked the payments first ... you don't want to give them the idea that you are paranoid unless you have good evidence that you are in fact being discrimated against.... they might really block your card).

[Kerryd]

Could be your c/c company has strict rules regarding use. I know some companies/banks that require you to inform them if you are going to be using the card in another country.

I had to list every country I was going to be travelling to when I got my last c/c renewed. I told them I was going to be out of the country, and they asked which country I would be using the card in. When I started rattling off the different places I'd be working in/travelling to, they got a bit flustered. Guess they don't have many customers that travel to more than one country).

Could also be the payment system that Air Asia uses to process c/c payments. Some companies use a third party billing system to process credit card payments. Perhaps your c/c company/bank has had complaints or problems with that company.

The other possible problem is if the address you supplied doesn't match what you gave the c/c company.

I get this from time to time, as my address starts off as "#10, RR # 2". Some payment systems won't accept the "#" character, or drop it after you enter it. As a result, the address doesn't match what my c/c company has on file (computer systems that check addresses aren't that intuitive to realize that "10, RR 2" is the same as "#10, RR #2"). I've also encountered problems with some places that insist on calling you to confirm it is actually you making the purchase. When you are working in a place like Afghanistan, it is often difficult to receive calls here (not to mention the time difference).

Best bet is to call your issuing company and let them know what you are trying to do. They'll let you know if there is a problem (normally).

[torrenova]

The address mismatch is a very real point as is language. Unbeknown to me, my bank in Thailand had entered my address into the computer in Thai and not in English so that caused problems.

Try and verfiy it with Visa, sometimes that works.

[bubu]

I booked 8 flights in November with the same credit card. And I had no problems!

This is the reason why I am a bit surprised that it is not working now ...

But my Thai friend tried to book the flights, same problem ...

That means Air Asia blocks past customer for the promotions, or they have a technical problem with the payment system ...

I don't know ... but in fact, we could not book the flights ... and this is bad ...

[torrenova]

Did you try more than one card ?

Seems like a payment problem, could you not just phone them up ?

[bri1guy]

Call your credit card Co immediatly and tell them you want to charge overseas airline tickets,, same thing happened to me.. oufter they say you can do this it will go thru.. I reccomend always letting your card Co's know before you travel so that no problems occur while abroad.. With that airline confirm yout tckets as well because I have sometimes had changes on less regular destinations..

[bubu]

I tried two cards and my friend tried to book with his Thai credit card.

Same problems. Cards were declined.

Error message says ...

<h1 class="title">Sorry</h1> Regrettably your card has been declined.

Please go back to the payment page and ensure

that the information you entered was correct.

Otherwise, please try another card or call our

call centre.

I really don't understand ... I sent them a mail and I hope that they will reply.

As I said, some weeks ago I also tried to book a promotion, but same problem.

And my friend called Air Asia's call center and they said I should try again

because they would have a technical problem at the moment.

And now the same technical problem with three different cards.

INTERESTING WORLD

Did you try more than one card ?

Seems like a payment problem, could you not just phone them up ?

[bubu]

I used the same credit card ... and I booked many flights 8 weeks ago with the same card.

So why should my bank change anything?

I am sure it is an Air Asia problem ...

Call your credit card Co immediatly and tell them you want to charge overseas airline tickets,, same thing happened to me.. oufter they say you can do this it will go thru.. I reccomend always letting your card Co's know before you travel so that no problems occur while abroad.. With that airline confirm yout tckets as well because I have sometimes had changes on less regular destinations..

[tropo]

Hi all ...

I was just trying to book some cheap flights ... because they have a 10 Baht special at the moment.

But ... I can try different dates, different flights ... I always receive the message that my card was declined.

I had the same error some weeks ago when I tried to book some price specials.

Are farang cards blocked? What do you think?

Is there anybody who could book today?

I can only use one credit card (out of 3) with AirAsia. They insist on "verified by visa" if you're using a Visa card. One of my cards is not on this program, and AirAsia don't accept it.

[bubu]

Sure?

In November I booked with this card and had no problems ...

My card issuer doesn't offer VERIFIED BY VISA ...

Hi all ...

I was just trying to book some cheap flights ... because they have a 10 Baht special at the moment.

But ... I can try different dates, different flights ... I always receive the message that my card was declined.

I had the same error some weeks ago when I tried to book some price specials.

Are farang cards blocked? What do you think?

Is there anybody who could book today?

I can only use one credit card (out of 3) with AirAsia. They insist on "verified by visa" if you're using a Visa card. One of my cards is not on this program, and AirAsia don't accept it.

[Ricardo]

Only a cynic might suppose, that Air Asia want to confine the promotion to locals only, since all farangs are ipso-facto rich, and can afford to pay more.

[Zpete]

Earlier this year Air Asia sent a promo with some fab fares.

I booked about 7 return flites.

Being a "Member", my detatails are all kept on their computer.

In 4 years and umpteen bookings with Air Asia, I have never encountered a problem.

On my return to NZ, if I have used my card in a shop, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Indonesia.... where ever, I find a block on my card.

Visa, thru' the bank stops any payments over $NZ500.00. I am asked to cut my card up and a new one is supplied. 4 BNZ Visa Gold Cards last year, no charge to me.

Possibly there is something like this happening, unknown to some users.

Edited January 8, 2008 by Zpete

[altman]

i had exactly this same problem.

i tried 2 different cards which had both recently been used for other purposes, including airline flights, both 'over here' and back in the states.

i haven't yet called the cc companies to check the actual status, so they may be 'blocked', but i think ...

1) Air Asia is somehow involved. when i called them they simply wanted me to book through the telephone at the regular rates rather than the inet rates. using the same card!

2) it may be a matter of how your computer is set up. at one time i noticed, with some site and i've forgotten which one now, if i had my computer set up for the thailand time zone the site would block my credit card. but if i re-adjusted the time zone setting to stateside, then all went well. i did not try this with AA as, by the time i got through with all my trial and error and telephoning, the special flights i was trying to get were fully booked. thanks AA

[Ping]

Just a thought (probably wrong); is it the sort of deal that would have people jumping to get on to it? It may be that the payment system was under deluge and defaults to rejecting when it gets swamped. Perhaps if you try it very late at night?

[alaina]

The same cards work than won't work than will work again with their online system, and the people at the call center never seem to have any answers about it. (The same goes for getting answers about most things.) I've called my credit card companies and they've said that they did not decline anything and that no authorization inquiries show for Air Asia on their system. Most of the info is stored on my computer about my address and so forth, so it's not an error in entering the info.

I think the problem lies with Air Asia but they seem to refuse to admit/acknowlegde that.

[bubu]

Yes, as I said, I also think so ...

I just found a topic in a famous German Thailand forum.

http://nittaya.de/viewtopic.php?t=28261&start_t=0

They are talking about the same problem ...

One members said he never had problems with Air Asia bookings in the past years ...

I don't want to try, but I am sure that the "expensive" tickets can be purchased without any problems ...

The same cards work than won't work than will work again with their online system, and the people at the call center never seem to have any answers about it. (The same goes for getting answers about most things.) I've called my credit card companies and they've said that they did not decline anything and that no authorization inquiries show for Air Asia on their system. Most of the info is stored on my computer about my address and so forth, so it's not an error in entering the info.

I think the problem lies with Air Asia but they seem to refuse to admit/acknowlegde that.

[peter991]

Pity us poor Australians. From November last year, Air Asia has a direct link now from OOL (Gold Coast Airport) to KUL (Kuala Lumpur) with connections to BKK. Saves us driving all the way into Brisbane.

I booked OOL-KUL-BKK and return on Air Asia's website and no problems (that I knew of). Took 3 days for the tickets to get emailled to me. Then I realised that OOL-KUL was only 4 times a week (not daily) and I was due to fly KUL-BKK, the day before I was due to fly OOL-KUL!

Air Asia doesn't have an email address which is monitored nor an Australian telephone contact number - so I ended up spending 15 minutes phoning their English speaking contact in Malaysia. To amend the ticket cost 3000 baht (plus the cost of the phone call). The operator told me my credit card (the one I used to make the booking) was declined - even though I knew there was still $AUD40,000 credit available.

I phoned my bank - who had no record of Air Asia attempting to put a $AUD100 (3000 baht) charge on the card. Two days later I got my Thai partner to make a 2 minute local call from Bangkok to Air Asia - solved the problem - new itinerary emailled immediately.

Peter

[bubu]

Are there any offices in Bangkok city where tickets can be purchased?

[ourmanflint]

Are there any offices in Bangkok city where tickets can be purchased?

The same happened to me a while back, it turned out they have stopped accepting Visa Debit cards online, and when I called them, they said the only way I could buy a ticket with my Barclays Connect Vias card was to go to the desk at Suvannabhumi!!

Also means I can't book flights from the UK anymore as I refuse to get a Visa Credit card...

[bubu]

Still the same!

Air Asia has a new promotion, booking period starts at midnight BKK time ...

But it is already possible to book ...

I just tried it some minutes ago, but still the same error ... card is declined.

This is very bad!

I really wish to book with them, but can not.

And I don't know why.

And Air Asia can not help ...

[torrenova]

Sorry to hijack this but these promotions with Air Asia, are you getting an email because I am always too alte for them.

[cleggit]

Still the same!

Air Asia has a new promotion, booking period starts at midnight BKK time ...

But it is already possible to book ...

I just tried it some minutes ago, but still the same error ... card is declined.

This is very bad!

I really wish to book with them, but can not.

And I don't know why.

And Air Asia can not help ...

I would be suprised if this problem is with Air Asia - although it does sound a bit strange that there are so many instances of it happening. I have booked promotion fares with my UK issued Visa card no problem in the past.

Most likely this lies with the issuer and their fraud profiling system. These systems can be very specialised and can pick out transactions at merchant/country level or even customer instruction level eg PIN @ POS/Online/Fallback to signature/telesales etc etc etc and apply different acceptance criteria to each - this can cause transactions to be referred/declined despite funds being available. Usually a transaction would be referred to inconvenience the customer as little as possible but with customer not present situations such as online purchases a referral cannot be worked so the transaction gets declined. Your bank should write exceptions for these that would not necessarily appear on your account when you contacted them. The average call centre operator is not likely to know about this and would explain them insisting nothing is wrong on your account. I would contact them again and be a bit more insistent they investigate this problem further. Your bank should pass this through to a second line support with access to more information.

Thinking Air Asia are singling out farang is unlikely - there are some paranoid people on here

[bubu]

Still the same!

Air Asia has a new promotion, booking period starts at midnight BKK time ...

But it is already possible to book ...

I just tried it some minutes ago, but still the same error ... card is declined.

This is very bad!

I really wish to book with them, but can not.

And I don't know why.

And Air Asia can not help ...

I would be suprised if this problem is with Air Asia - although it does sound a bit strange that there are so many instances of it happening. I have booked promotion fares with my UK issued Visa card no problem in the past.

Most likely this lies with the issuer and their fraud profiling system. These systems can be very specialised and can pick out transactions at merchant/country level or even customer instruction level eg PIN @ POS/Online/Fallback to signature/telesales etc etc etc and apply different acceptance criteria to each - this can cause transactions to be referred/declined despite funds being available. Usually a transaction would be referred to inconvenience the customer as little as possible but with customer not present situations such as online purchases a referral cannot be worked so the transaction gets declined. Your bank should write exceptions for these that would not necessarily appear on your account when you contacted them. The average call centre operator is not likely to know about this and would explain them insisting nothing is wrong on your account. I would contact them again and be a bit more insistent they investigate this problem further. Your bank should pass this through to a second line support with access to more information.

Thinking Air Asia are singling out farang is unlikely - there are some paranoid people on here

I told many times that I booked 6 flights with Air Asia in November 07, but since December the card is declined.

Nothing changed with my card ...

[bubu]

Sorry to hijack this but these promotions with Air Asia, are you getting an email because I am always too alte for them.

I check the website every day ...

[threelegcowboy]

Some time back Airasia stopped accepting my US debit card. One day it worked, the next day I got an error message (forgot what it said). The error message was bogas. I am sure they chaged the software etc. I tried many different changes as to how I was entering info.

AIRASIA CHANGED THE PHONE NUMBER REQUIREMENTS. IT SHOULD BE AS CALLED FROM MALAYSIA TO YOUR NUMBER. COUNTRY CODES ETC.

Hope this is the current answer

[bubu]

GOOD NEWS!

Hmmm ... today I tried many times to book flights with my credit cards.

But always error message ...

Then I tried to call the call center, they said "For English please press 2"

I pressed 2, but nothing happened ...

Then my Thai friend called and asked if we can book the 99 Baht flights via phone,

but they said it is a special internet rate.

And now, some minutes ago I called a friend here in Germany and asked him to book the flights for us.

He used his credit card and received the confirmation instantly.

I really wish to understand the problem, but I can not ...

Obviously I can not book Air Asia flights again with my card ...

[jeffer]

I had this problem with Air Asia twice and found it was to do with 'Verified by Visa'

Late in the booking process there was a popup I think that asked if I wanted to register for vbv now or another time. I said another time and the transaction was declined. I was able to pay for my ticket by phone the next day. I also rang my credit card company and they said they would have to reset something for me. Same thing happened about 6 months later when again I said do it another time so the next time this happened I signed up for 'Verified by Visa' and everthing was okay.