Image by symphonysid via Flickr
I’m heading over to Paris in a couple of weeks to attend the ICANN meeting.
While I may have booked my hotel room ages ago I still haven’t organised my flights. Flying from Dublin to Paris shouldn’t be hard to organise as so many of the airlines serve the route.
So earlier today I decided to look into my options.
Air France’s rates seem ok, but I thought I’d check both Aer Lingus and British Airways as well. I’m not interested in Ryanair, as I don’t really fancy a trek from Beauvais, while I know that getting from Charles de Gaulle is quite easy.
That an airline would add fuel surcharges and possibly baggage handling charges is one thing, but that the “national” carrier would have the gall to charge a 6 euro credit card handling fee is nuts!
For all bookings except those originating in the USA, there is a handling fee charged. Charges as follows:
€6 per person Credit Card handling fee.
€2 per person Debit Card handling fee
With the volume of transactions that a company like Aer Lingus is processing I would suspect that their cost per transaction at the merchant level is negligible. I don’t know who they use to manage their payment gateway, but whether it’s inhouse or outsourced there is no way that it could possibly cost 6 euro. And a 2 euro debit card fee is just as insane, as they actually cost less to process.
I already mentioned their inane issues with browser language detection issues (everyone is in the US according to them!)
I’d love to know how people would react if we started chucking on CC handling fees.. Actually, I wouldn’t want to know. The very idea of it makes me feel queasy
From Niall:
I use cityjet when going to Paris – they’re cheap and fly to CDG from Dublin.
From Michele Neylon:
Niall
Thanks for that. I’ll check it out
Michele
From Paul Clerkin:
I recently booked flights from Gatwick to Dublin with Aer Lingus. They offered me the chance to pay in Can on my Canadian Credit Card. Surprise surprise, their Can value for the price quoted was over 70 dollars more than that days closing price.
From 5h4mr0(k:
Use City Jet/Air France – they’ll give you a snack and a drink and won’t charge you for it.
They’ll treat you like an airline.
How can they justify having a CC charge PER PASSENGER? What if you were doing your weekly shop and they added on a charge per item you were buying? Or if there was a charge for every CD/DVD you ordered at time?
From Conor:
Yes I’ll vouch for Cityjet/Air France. It is the best way to fly to CDG.
I also think Realex process their payments as well.
Maybe I’ll spot you next time I’m flying to CDG
From Dominykas:
Realex is the payment provider for Aer Lingus, I’m 99% sure. And Realex charges peanuts (€.25 per transaction I saw sometime ago… Or it might have been the AIB fee). Realex also has a flatrate monthly option. I think. Anyways. CC charges are peanuts for ANY company doing business online. You are very right! On the other hand, I’ve seen airlines charging €10 for CC transaction…
On the other note, I can’t wait for the legislation that says essentially “any payment method – same price” to come into effect. I think it’s supposed to arrive this year in Ireland, isn’t it? Than again… Everyone will just start charging more for EVERY payment type