Best way to book a flight without having to pay additional fees

[Smaug 5,849]

I've often used my credit card to pay from friends' airfares. In fact, if memory serves, Lufthansa's and BA's website booking mechanisms explicity guides you on how to buy a ticket for someone else: family member, boss, friend, stranger... who's to say?

[kaffeemitmilch 1,295]

No, it would have involved trust on THEIR part - I would have required the money before I booked

[dj_jay_smith 3,449]

On 2017-6-23 09:13:35, McCloud94 said:

I searched for my journey on google flights and was about to order through united.com directly - just to see the issuing country of my credit card is not supported  

After a call with them, they recommended booking through a travel agent. 

 

But with all of them, I have to pay additional 30-50 euros JUST TO PAY with my VISA card.. wth ? 

I'm getting quite upset as I've already spent hours researching the flights and now even paying for the booking is a hassle. 

 

Any recommendations ?

There must be a way to book the flight for the actual price, without any additional fees..

 

The 30-50 Euros is not a credit card fee, it is the travel agent fee.

 

It used to be that travel agents got a commission on airfares sold but several years ago the airlines stopped paying commissions.  This allowed them to offer cheaper flights and reduced their costs as they no longer to system to calculate the fees owed to agent.  So agents now have to charge you a fee in order to make any money (otherwise they are effectively working for free).  

 

I agree with the others that the best way is to use online travel sites to find and book your ticket.  Kayak offers a service which compares different websites directly, and there is even an option to include the cost for credit cards etc. by selecting your type of card.

 

Another option is simply to go to the airport with the cash and pay directly at the ticket counter! (Assuming United have a ticket counter or a designated agent such as Lufthansa who can do this for them).

 

[yourkeau 7,723]

Some airlines require credit card to proceed with check-in. This happened to me once with Emirates in Hong Kong (I and credit card holder were the same). This happened to friend of mine with Turkish in Istanbul: husband paid for friend's ticket, but was not present at check-in. He had to fax his credit card for her to be checked in.

 

This is rare, but does happen, so if you ask someone else to pay, take this into account.

[fraufruit 42,701]

I have read T & C for air travel and car rental where it say the credit card owner must present the card also. Not very often, though, and not for quite a while.