Flight Cancelled Due to ANZ

I need some help / advise please. Ok here is what happened:

I booked a business class ticket with Turkish Air on 16 April on their website with my ANZ Amex FF. It was for departure 20 April from Kuala Lumpur to Accra with a stop over in Istanbul. The reservation and eticket was issued. I checked the flight on Turkish Airlines website prior to departing for the airport, with no problems.

At the airport I was told my ticket was cancelled and refunded due to a suspected fraud on my ANZ Amex. I received no notification of this. The flight was fully booked and I was advised that any new tickets must be booked via the ticketing office in Kuala Lumpur. It was near midnight so I caught a taxi to a hotel.

The next day I went in person and was told they could not help me but they called customer service so we could speak on the phone. They could not book me on a flight for another two days and the cost would be an additional 6k USD. They claimed my bank was fully responsible for this and accepted no fault. I requested to rebook at the original rate and this was refused. I told them I was not satisfied with the service and they told me very bluntly that if I was not happy with their service then I didn't have to fly with them.

I was required for a meeting in Accra on 23rd April and booked an Emirates ticket which cost 4k USD more than the original fare by Turkish Air. Emirates would not accept my ANZ Amex, so I paid via Visa Debit.

I rang ANZ and they told me payment was rejected by Turkish Air and Emirates because I did not enter in the expiry code. This is not the case, as I can see the expiry code on the invoices from both airlines.

I would like some opinions on:

  1. should I pursue Turkish Airlines or ANZ for this issue? If so, what is the best way to do this?
  2. should I try and claim this from my travel insurance?

Related Stores

ANZ
ANZ

Comments

  • Seems both the bank as well as the airline offered you a bad service here.

    Usually the bank calls if your details with them are up to date.
    I think they also have an option on their Internet Banking to let them know when you travel,
    to avoid rejected transaction because of suspeced Fraud.

    Next time it would be worth to call AMEX, as they have all this advertisement of helping out in these situations.

    Some ANZ FF AMEX have a travel insurance included. Another option ?
    Travel insurance (Option 2) sounds the easier option to go….

    Disclaimer: Have no experience with such a case myself. Just gut feeling….

  • +4

    So, before you left Australia, did you notify your Bank you were going travelling overseas?

    If you are taking your debit and/or credit cards overseas, ANZ highly recommends you let us know before you travel.

    By sending us your travel plans, you will help avoid transactions on the cards being stopped by ANZ Falcon™ when it detects overseas purchases.

    https://www.anz.com/internet-banking/help/contact-us/travel-…

  • +1

    Hi Big & Holdenmg,

    Yes I told ANZ about my travel plans before I left and also rang them the day before I was booking the trip. I have AMEX travel insurance but don't have much faith in them.

    I rang ANZ again today and they told me it was the airline that requested the transaction to be reversed. Pretty annoying!

  • +1

    booked with an ANZ card in KL to Accra, of course that's going to raise many flags of fraud.

    what I don't understand is why you're on OzBargain when you're splashing about so much cash for no reason?

    if the bank said it's the airline, get that in writing from them and forward that to the airline. SIMPLE.

    • With all due respect, Oz Bargain is open to everybody - wealthy or pauper, comfortable or struggling, tight arsed or spendthrift. The more opinion and question the better as we all learn something from each other along the way. It's offensive to imply that someone should not belong to OzBargain just because they seem to have money to 'splash ' - even that is an unjustified presumption. If you read the responses that came with the 'property investment' questions, you would have surmised that there are heaps of Oz Bargainers who are savvy multiple property investors - what that says is that there are many Oz Bargainers who are bloody rich, sitting on gold mines!

      • -1

        did I say you're not allowed to belong here? no of course not, maybe reading wasn't taught where you are from.

        surely if you have enough money to drop 10k on airline tickets you'd know who to call from that airline to get your issue resolved pretty quickly instead of asking on OzBargain

        • yah, you'd know Mr SmartAss !

        • sorry Shinjuku, the ticket was around 2k USD and its paid for using my work travel allowance. The replacement ticket was 6k USD which resulted in me personally financing the difference between my allowance and the new ticket, which was for work - not a holiday. Its not possible to get any amount over the allowance. Also there is no magic contact you get for being a frequent business flyer.

  • +3

    Hi again,

    I had a close look at Turkish Airlines website.

    Based on the page: Legal Notices/Terms and Conditions/Payment the stated terms of purchase seem to EXCLUDE the use of American Express Credit Cards.

    "Payments can be made by using your American Express credit card in currencies OTHER THAN Canadian Dollars, Australian Dollars, Russian Rubles and Chinese Yuan (Renminbi).

    http://www.turkishairlines.com/en-int/travel-information/leg…

    • I never even knew this! Thanks for the info.

    • Considering OP was flying from KL, the payment was probably in MYR.

  • +1

    Hi Shinjuku - I work in Accra and receive a travel allowance for flights every couple of months, not exactly splashing cash for no reason. In this case the new flight went way over my allowance which is why I am on ozbargain (also I always read the forums!).

    Payment was made in USD for whatever reason.

    I have asked the bank for a statement and lodge the travel insurance claim, so fingers crossed.

Login or Join to leave a comment