A year ago you featured a letter from a reader who was charged twice after booking flights with Delta airlines.
It is still happening. I bought a £2,367.82 return flight with Delta and my credit card has been charged for the outward and inward-bound tickets individually. The full sum for both has also been put on hold, meaning I’ve effectively paid twice.
Delta advises that it is my bank, Santander, which is at fault. Santander claims to have never heard of this problem and says the ringfenced sum should be unfrozen within five days.
This means I’m in danger of exceeding my credit card limit until the second sum is released. GT, Hindhead, Surrey
Online forums report similar experiences from travellers who have purchased airline tickets.
When you use a debit or credit card, the merchant pre-authorises the sum with your bank to ensure that you have enough funds to settle the debt.
This is then reserved by the bank until the transaction is completed or cancelled, or until the pre-authorisation period expires, usually after three to seven days.
Although the pre-authorised sum is removed from the available balance, it is not actually debited.
According to Santander, Delta pre-authorised the total £2,367.82 cost of the return flight, but when it came to requesting the money, the airline split the cost into two payments of £1,183.91.
“As a result, the requested sums did not match the pre-authorised amount and both transactions were debited from the balance, although the £2,367.82 was not actually paid out,” says Santander.
“On review, whilst Santander is not at fault, we have offered the customer £50 as a gesture of goodwill for any confusion and inconvenience this may have caused.”
Delta explains that it splits return airfares in two to benefit from a lower credit card fee rate and insists the fault lies with banks who should release the hold on reserved funds once the payment has gone through.
The same thing happened in the case I featured last May.
Although the pre-authorised sum will be reapplied to a customer’s balance in due course, it’s extraordinary that banks and airlines have not worked out a way to avoid this apparent bill shock instead of passing the buck to each other.
If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions.