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Qantas is changing the way it charges passengers for paying for flights with a credit card.
Instead of a flat fee of $7 per passenger per booking for domestic and trans-Tasman flights and $30 for international flights when paying with a credit card for tickets booked in Australia, the airline will move to a percentage of the cost of the fare.
Under the new system, from September 1 passengers will be charged 0.6 per cent of the fare for paying with a debit card or prepaid card and 1.3 per cent of the fare for credit and charge cards irrespective of whether the flights is for domestic, trans-Tasman or international travel.
The card payment fee would be a capped at $11 for domestic and trans-Tasman flights, and $70 for other international flights.
Qantas said the change was prompted by the recent change in how credit card surcharges were regulated from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).
“In line with the RBA’s requirements, we will be changing our card payment fees on flight bookings from a fixed dollar fee to a percentage fee,” Qantas said in a note to travel agents.
“The majority of Qantas customers will pay the same or less in card payment fees than they do today, while some customers may pay more. Card payment fee caps will apply per ticket per card so customers will know the maximum amount.
“As always we’ll continue our focus on providing great value for money for you and all of our customers through competitive pricing and investment in new products, services and technology.”
Qantas noted it had a number of options that did not incur any fees, including paying by POLi or BPay.
Ron Brown
says:Qantas are getting just like a low cost airline grabbing every penny they can and loosing all customer service at the same time, when I asked about a refund I was told rudely, “You should have read the small print, tough”. They have lost my business!
Mal
says:Cost recovery is fully justified bur these fees are a complete rip off. How do they justify a per pax charge when it is all coming off one credit card in one transaction? Rest assured that this move has been modelled and will result in an enhanced profit.
Michael
says:I doubt many people will pay less than the current $7 per domestic fare. At the credit card charge of 1.3%, you would need a fare cheaper than $53.84 to pay less than $7 in credit card fee…
Michael I
says:The new fees are a reduction; the rip-off is finally over. For the domestic rate:
0.6% = 0.006
$7/0.006=$1,166.67.
You would have to pay domestic fares totalling $1,166.67 (before the card surcharge is deducted) to pay $7 in credit card fees. For international it would be $538.46 (somebody missed a decimal place before) before fees are $7, or $2307.69 before you reached the previous international rate of $30 per person as above.
There has been a significant campaign for years (from Choice in particular) for legislation requiring credit card fees to be in line with the actual cost, and it is finally paying off (unless you’re an airline!).