Warning: Thai Air Won't Charge Credit Cards

[Kf6vci]

Hello Folks:

after booking dozens of flights online worldwide, I wanted to let my girldfriend return to Songkhla by air. The THB 2,800 were paid with my HSBC Mastercard - or so I thought. BEWARE! Although you will receive a confirmation code, you haven't paid for the flight yet! *** At 5 am, the computers were down, so we couldn't get a boarding pass. Then the queue for my own flight to Tokio was long... The girlfriend had to travel by bus. Q: is there a reason for not charging credit cards at once, especially for such small fares? Frankly, I don't get it.

[Guest IT Manager]

Have asked Thai Airways to provide feedback, and asked them to comment here.

[tchk]

I've booked several flights on Thai by credit card and never had a problem.

One condition they have is that the card holder is among the people traveling.

Same situation with Swiss International.

Maybe that was the problem?

[lopburi3]

As pointed out you must be a pax on the flight booked and you can not use a debit card to pay for a Thai Air E ticket. All other tickets must be purchased at a service desk or travel agency; you only make the reservation online AFAIK.

Was the "confirmation code" a booking code perhaps (six letters/numbers)? An E ticket is 13 numbers and is not issued on the web (they are sent email). Thai does not have real time E ticket booking but on recent tickets to Chiang Mai that I requested the evening of 24 February my credit card was charged on the 25 (US time) and the tickets were in my inbox on the 25th (Thai time).

[asinah]

I heard the same that the creditcard must be the name of the passenger that is on the flight booked.

[SoiSniffer]

I book e-tickets with United (star alliance partner) and never have a problem. Just show passport and into the Royal Orchid Lounge I go! Do the Handle the Royal Exec Class line different?

[ovenman]

I've booked a few tickets online with THAI. What Kf6vci describes is accurate, a reservation is made but one's credit card is not charged at the time of the initial booking. An email is received after THAI processes the credit card payment which can be a couple of days later. This isn't really made clear at the time of the booking and since hardly anybody else does online business in this manner, it's easy to be under the mistaken impression that an e-ticket has already been issued.

[lopburi3]

This isn't really made clear at the time of the booking

I would say it is rather clearly spelled out under additional information of the confirmation page. I miss a lot of fine print but could not miss this:

"The owner of credit card used as payment must also travel. Failure to present this credit card at check-in may result in denied boarding.

The name shown on the credit card must be identical to the name of the credit card holder traveling in the itinerary and in the passport.

For E-ticket, the itinerary receipt will be sent through your E-mail address after ticket is issued.

For other tickets, the payment must be made and ticket collected at THAI city office in the country where the journey commences within 72 hours except as otherwise stated in the "last day to Ticket""