Credit Card Not Charged For Airline Ticket: What Would You Do?

If you booked an airline ticket but discovered you were never actually charged for it, what would you do? This is something that a longtime OMAAT reader asked me, and I’m not sure what the right answer is, so let me open this up to y’all…

Passenger never charged for confirmed airline ticket

Several weeks back, an OMAAT reader booked a roundtrip business class ticket for two people on a major Star Alliance airline, for a long haul journey. He paid with his Amex Platinum Card, and the charge initially appeared as pending (as expected). However, after a few days the charge disappeared, and never ended up posting to his account. Months later, there’s still no charge on the card.

He notes that the reservation is fully confirmed, there’s a ticket number, and it shows as normal on the carrier’s website. For what it’s worth, he has flown this airline many times before, booking tickets in the same currency, with the same origin. Everything looks the same as it did in the past.

So he asked me what I would do in this situation. He also asked if it’s worth contacting the airline or visiting the carrier’s ticketing office in his departure city. His concern is that if they catch the mistake closer to departure, it could put tickets at risk, not because he did anything wrong, but because airlines sometimes just sort of do what they want.

Let me also emphasize that there was no “trickery” going on here, or anything. These are just totally ordinary tickets that were booked on the carrier’s website.

My take on this strange ticketing situation

To start, I guess there are two main considerations here — the ethics, and also the practical implications and risks of what could go wrong with a ticket like this.

If a major corporation forgets to charge you for something even though you did everything correctly on your end, do you have an ethical obligation to say something? Everyone can decide on that for themselves.

I think the bigger question is what the practical implications are. Could you be denied boarding? If you don’t say anything, what are the odds that you’re actually not charged?

• Generally if a ticket is issued and there’s no payment settlement, it will be flagged for manual review, and sometimes that can just take some time
• It’s also possible that even though a valid ticket is issued, the ticket “coupons” may be moved to an interim state, and that can only be updated with payment
• It’s possible the traveler will be charged before departure, at check-in, or even after the fact
• While it’s highly likely that the traveler gets charged, anything is possible, and ultimately some things do fall through the cracks, even at major airlines

I’m honestly not sure what exactly I’d do here. I’m kind of allergic to picking up the phone if it can be avoided. Like, even if you call the airline, it’s possible the reservations agent just doesn’t understand the point you’re trying to make, when they see that the ticket is issued.

I might just not do anything, but expect that I’ll be charged at some point. I’d definitely try to check-in online, or otherwise, arrive at the airport a bit earlier than usual. But if you want to play it safe and avoid any potential airport hassle, calling the airline is probably the best bet. However, the actual process of explaining that on the phone might not be so straightforward, and might require hanging up and calling again.

Bottom line

A passenger booked an expensive business class ticket on an airline, but hasn’t been charged, even months after the ticket was confirmed. What’s the right thing to do in this situation?

Well, odds are that the airline will find a way to collect payment, either well before travel, at check-in, or maybe even after the fact. That being said, sometimes things do slip through the cracks. The safest option here would be to call the airline, but actually getting a frontline phone agent to understand this issue might require hanging up and calling again, since this is an unusual situation.

How would you handle this odd ticket charge situation?