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…
In this post:
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?
One should not have to spend their own time to fix the airline's mistake. Calling and spending hours on the phone in order to give the airline money for something they did wrong is just ridiculous.
Got a 10x refund from an Asian airline due to a cancelled covid booking, I assume due to a currency conversion issue. Never heard a word from them. Flew with them 2 or 3 times after that no issues.
I was never charged for a hotel stay in Belgium. Paid with Visa in advance and stayed for 3 nights. It was years ago and had great free stay.
A very long time ago, I was on an international AA flight. I bought a box of cigars when the Duty Free cart came around. Yes, they really really did stock cigars then. Paid for it on a credit card, and this was in the days of the old manual 'swipe' machine, and for some reason I was never charged. Never came up on my card statement. Great, I was a box of cigars up!...
A very long time ago, I was on an international AA flight. I bought a box of cigars when the Duty Free cart came around. Yes, they really really did stock cigars then. Paid for it on a credit card, and this was in the days of the old manual 'swipe' machine, and for some reason I was never charged. Never came up on my card statement. Great, I was a box of cigars up! Few months later, same flight. Bought another box of stogies, and this time, the charge came up a week or so later. But.... this second time, I'd put the box in the overhead compartment and forgot it when I walked off the plane. Too late to try and retrieve it when I'd got home. So, paid for one box. Got one box. Karma in action.
I do not think this required an article. I think most people know their options and weigh the benefits and drawbacks and continue.
Don't fix it if it's not broken. What I mean by that is -- let the sleeping dog lie and worry about it at the airport or AFTER the fact (after your flight). Too many times an agent (over the phone) doesn't have a clue. I'm sick and tired of "fixing" the mistake and when you even go to explain it to an agent, they haven't a clue and then you just opened up a...
Don't fix it if it's not broken. What I mean by that is -- let the sleeping dog lie and worry about it at the airport or AFTER the fact (after your flight). Too many times an agent (over the phone) doesn't have a clue. I'm sick and tired of "fixing" the mistake and when you even go to explain it to an agent, they haven't a clue and then you just opened up a can of worms. You end up repeating yourself and being switched to another area, etc. And God help you if the person you are talking to doesn't understand the vernacular of the US. I'd be more than willing to be honest and pay the fare.......I'll worry about it at the airport; check in earlier than usual and see what happens.
Imagine having to use a different English word to explain something to someone who doesn’t understand exactly what you’re saying. The horror!!
I have to imagine the most likely explanation is that the charge did post, but the traveler just overlooked it on their card statement.
This is so simple for anyone with the slightest modicum of ethics. Someone screwed up and you owe the fare. Fess up and pay it!
I booked a BA companion ticket flight with Avios one way GLA - SYD in Jan 2024, astonished to get seats as they are very rare. One year later the night before the flight I went online to check in, and the booking had disappeared. I called BA and luckily got a very committed agent who investigated, and eventually discovered that the Amex charge for the taxes had not cleared. In the days prior to...
I booked a BA companion ticket flight with Avios one way GLA - SYD in Jan 2024, astonished to get seats as they are very rare. One year later the night before the flight I went online to check in, and the booking had disappeared. I called BA and luckily got a very committed agent who investigated, and eventually discovered that the Amex charge for the taxes had not cleared. In the days prior to the flight someone had checked this, and cancelled the booking because of non-payment, without contacting me. After a long time on the phone, I managed to get the flight reinstated, on payment of the taxes. Fortunately there were still two seats available on the Sydney flight. My advice would be, if the flight is important, I was joining a cruise, and you notice the non-payment, which I didn't, chase it up at the time, otherwise you may be in for a lot of stress at the last minute.
Oh God! What a nightmare. Yeah, there's that too.......someone cancelling the reservation and you're left "stranded" so to speak. Again, all things come down to working with an agent who KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING when you call them to get the problem fixed. When I don't get resolution, I hang up and call again, hoping that the next agent will be helpful and know what they are doing.
Ethics. When it comes to airlines they are some of the most unethical company's there are. So I like to treat other people the way they treat me.... so in case of the airlines, I wouldn't say a thing. They are ripping you off most of the time anyway.
I had a case once where I booked a flight in Business on an African airline, via a major OTA. One of the big ones....
Ethics. When it comes to airlines they are some of the most unethical company's there are. So I like to treat other people the way they treat me.... so in case of the airlines, I wouldn't say a thing. They are ripping you off most of the time anyway.
I had a case once where I booked a flight in Business on an African airline, via a major OTA. One of the big ones. It was a mistake fare and the airline after 2 weeks decided not to honour it.
I approached the airline for the refund after 4 weeks has passed. We're talking USD 3k'ish. They told me to speak with the OTA. After going back and forth for another 6 weeks with the OTA, they kept telling me the airline had to release the funds before they could give it back to me.
I finally spoke with a supervisor and she told me she would go outside the system and refund me the money even though they had not received it from the airline.
But while that was going on, I was harassing the airline telling them the OTA was waiting and how infuriated I was. They took all my details. And guess what, they refunded me the money as well.
So I was refunded twice for the same booking the airline did not honour. So I thought what do I do. And then ethics came into it. I had been buggered around for 6-7 weeks with both the entities, call after call after call and long, long times waiting on the line. I estimate 15 -16 hours on calls.
So I kept the money. I regarded it as them paying me for my valuable time for an error they made that was not my fault.
So keep the money OMAAT reader, they won't miss it. Most of them are far to busy being woke.
I had this happen a few years back. I was worried that I'd show up to the airport and have no tickets, but everything went fine. Even got the miles. I was never charged.
Former Amex employee here. Please contact your card issuer before you contact the carrier.
There are 3 components to a ticket that the public does not see:
Agent Coupon-which is retained by the ticket issuer whether travel agency or the carrier.
Auditors Coupon-which goes to the area settlement bank and is audited by the issuing airline to determine by what means the fare was calculated and issued....Auto Price in the system ?...
Former Amex employee here. Please contact your card issuer before you contact the carrier.
There are 3 components to a ticket that the public does not see:
Agent Coupon-which is retained by the ticket issuer whether travel agency or the carrier.
Auditors Coupon-which goes to the area settlement bank and is audited by the issuing airline to determine by what means the fare was calculated and issued....Auto Price in the system ? Manually stored fare by the agent (gets a special look)
and lastly..
The Charge Coupon which goes to the credit card company. To ensure payement.
All of these are electronic of course.
Start with the Card.....they can advocate to the carrier for you.
Surely the carrier matters here. TK, ET, TG, AI, AV or the Mainland carriers, you'll definitely be held up at check-in, and probably be denied boarding. People purchase flights on those carriers by all manners of payment, and I'm sure errors happen all the time. There's also probably all kinds of gamesmanship going on with these carriers too (even though that doesn't apply to the person in question).
UA, AC, LH, NH probably not a...
Surely the carrier matters here. TK, ET, TG, AI, AV or the Mainland carriers, you'll definitely be held up at check-in, and probably be denied boarding. People purchase flights on those carriers by all manners of payment, and I'm sure errors happen all the time. There's also probably all kinds of gamesmanship going on with these carriers too (even though that doesn't apply to the person in question).
UA, AC, LH, NH probably not a big deal, and worst case scenario, you'll be charged at check-in. If it were me, I'd probably just call Amex and see what's going on. They owe the carrier the money, there's no harm in paying it.
Had a similiar issue... I paid miles for Swiss first class during a mistake fare sale a few years back (I think it was through Aeroplan). (I believe you were also involved in this sale Ben?) Swiss downgraded the ticket to business and emailed me that they were refunding the difference in miles between first and business... except they refunded me 100% of the miles I paid while confiriming the business tickets.
I fully expected...
Had a similiar issue... I paid miles for Swiss first class during a mistake fare sale a few years back (I think it was through Aeroplan). (I believe you were also involved in this sale Ben?) Swiss downgraded the ticket to business and emailed me that they were refunding the difference in miles between first and business... except they refunded me 100% of the miles I paid while confiriming the business tickets.
I fully expected to be contacted or have miles deducted, but it never happened. No issue boarding the flight either. Hopefully statue of limitations has passed if anyone at Aeroplan or Swiss is reading this :)
Hopefully they honor their mistake in the future.
You rightfully deserve a full refund.
I have a curious and somewhat different situation that I'm keeping my eye on. I had a ticket booked on QR, MAD-DOH-CGK in J, booked for 75,000 AA points. I was leaving from the US east coast and was really hoping to find availability departing fairly locally on JAL.
I got an alert that JAL F opened on LAX-HND, and I was quickly able to confirm that it would allow me to book...
I have a curious and somewhat different situation that I'm keeping my eye on. I had a ticket booked on QR, MAD-DOH-CGK in J, booked for 75,000 AA points. I was leaving from the US east coast and was really hoping to find availability departing fairly locally on JAL.
I got an alert that JAL F opened on LAX-HND, and I was quickly able to confirm that it would allow me to book JFK-LAX-HND with the first leg in J and the second on JAL in F. In addition there was JAL NRT-CGK the next day in J, but it didn't show up as bookable all the way through. So I called AA and got them to confirm they could marry the segments, it would cost 110,000 miles and $25.90, and had them cancel the MAD-CGK itinerary and switch it to the JFK-CGK itinerary.
When I went to pay though my AA card got declined. I've never had a card declined lol. After a few tries, including on a second card which also declined, they refunded me the miles and just put the ticket on hold. I texted AA through the app later in the day, and they charged me the miles and sent me a secured payment center but once again with multiple cards and multiple tries it didn't go through. The agent confirmed there was an issue on their end and refunded me the miles.
The next day I called AA again (and got an amazing agent; I remeber her name was Alexandra. Shoutout). She took a look and said the payment failures were likely caused by JAL pushing the departure time back 5 minutes. Once we "acknowledged" that, she charged me the miles (?) and sent me a payment link. Once again my AA card, so she sent another payment link and it worked with my CSP, charged the around 26 bucks. But it seems she also refunded me the miles before that and didn't charge them again?
Basically, when I checked a few days later, and again after that, and again after that, my AA account still had all the miles in it. I was kind of freaked out so i called AA, just asking to confirm my PNR, make sure it was all ticketed properly (I basically said can you conform ALL the payment went through properly?), and they confirmed everything looked right and sent me a reciept, which said right on it "0.0 miles + $25.90 - paid"
I'm waiting for AA to run an audit and charge me the 110,000 miles, and I'm not spending them until i take the flight, and I'm gonna get to the airport nice and early to check in at the desk, but... maybe I'll end up flying JL First class for literally just 26 bucks?!?! Fingers crossed.
That probably would be the best thing to do.
An honest person got stressed out trying to come clean after AA refunded him $30M.
The reality is that there's a power imbalance with these systems and AA could decide to randomly ban you for this.
Look at the Virgin Atlantic article. Airlines do this all the time.
Something similar happened to me with Aerolíneas Argentinas last December. . . They accidentally refunded me the airfare and they let me take the flight. . . and have been trying to collect the airfare through aggressive emails threatening to ban me from the airline. They charged the ticket originally but refunded it out of the blue. Someone got fired that day.
If the airline has raised a dispute claim with your card company, has that not affected your credit score?
No airline or merchant can raise a dispute claim with a card company. Only cardholders can.
And a cardholder raising a dispute does not affect their credit score.
Every day is a school day, thank you.
You are welcome.
I would first contact my credit card company and see what they have to say. Somehow it may have "dropped out" going from pending to posting. I work with credit card technology, and yeah that would not be surprising. If the airline is out the money that's eventually going to get picked up and the airline might simply cancel the ticket. If nowhere with the credit card company then the airline and after that you have to just let it go.
Reminds me of a recent call with Amex.
tldr: Booked Jetblue tickets, use Amex airline credits for addons. Jetblue cancels flight, Jetblue refunds me flight and ancillary fees. Amex credits show up after refund is returned to me. Call Amex, they say it should be caught by their systems sometime and the credits should drop off my account or it will be applied to a future purchase.
Now I'm wondering what will happen...
Reminds me of a recent call with Amex.
tldr: Booked Jetblue tickets, use Amex airline credits for addons. Jetblue cancels flight, Jetblue refunds me flight and ancillary fees. Amex credits show up after refund is returned to me. Call Amex, they say it should be caught by their systems sometime and the credits should drop off my account or it will be applied to a future purchase.
Now I'm wondering what will happen if I don't take a Jetblue flight for the rest of this year or if it doesn't drop off. It's $200, but that pesky ethics thing comes into question.
Charges do not magically drop off into ether. An action has to be taken or not taken for such a situation to occur.
When tickets are issued, airlines will send authorization requests to the credit card companies for the funds. These will show on cardholders' accounts as a pending transactions. If airlines do not send a follow up command to settle those transactions within 30 days after the authorization, then the authorization hold will...
Charges do not magically drop off into ether. An action has to be taken or not taken for such a situation to occur.
When tickets are issued, airlines will send authorization requests to the credit card companies for the funds. These will show on cardholders' accounts as a pending transactions. If airlines do not send a follow up command to settle those transactions within 30 days after the authorization, then the authorization hold will drop from the cardholders' account.
Calling your credit card company is pointless. There will not be anything more they can tell you that you don't actually see from looking at your statement.
I would send them an e-mail and take a picture of it. I would also phone and mark all the details of the phone call, where, when and to whom. I would want to avoid any hassle at the airport.
I would send them an e-mail and take a picture of it. I would also phone and mark all the details of the phone call, where, when and to whom. I would want to avoid any hassle at the airport.
Ben, I'm in a different situation currently. In February I had an award ticket redemption for an upcoming flight. I called the airline's call center (Turkish) and had the Star alliance award processed manually. My credit card was charged for the taxes and fees, an e-ticket was issued, and the miles were deducted from my account.
After ticketing, the miles were for some reason returned to my account, but my e-ticket remains valid and my...
Ben, I'm in a different situation currently. In February I had an award ticket redemption for an upcoming flight. I called the airline's call center (Turkish) and had the Star alliance award processed manually. My credit card was charged for the taxes and fees, an e-ticket was issued, and the miles were deducted from my account.
After ticketing, the miles were for some reason returned to my account, but my e-ticket remains valid and my credit card is still charged for taxes and fees. Not sure what to do.
Oh my......my brother had the same exact thing happen to him and his wife. They were flying on United miles on Turkish airlines from the US, with a stop in Istanbul and onward to Africa. I cannot remember if the 1st leg was United metal to Istanbul or Turkish (likely United). But when they got to Istanbul to make their Turkish connection they were told they could not get on the plane as United had...
Oh my......my brother had the same exact thing happen to him and his wife. They were flying on United miles on Turkish airlines from the US, with a stop in Istanbul and onward to Africa. I cannot remember if the 1st leg was United metal to Istanbul or Turkish (likely United). But when they got to Istanbul to make their Turkish connection they were told they could not get on the plane as United had not "paid them". Even though they had a valid ticket in their hand. They were stuck in Istanbul airport for 3 days getting things worked out. On the way home from Nairobi, Tukish cancelled their flight and it would be 3 days for the next one up to Istanbul and then back to the US. The wife had to get back to work in the US so they had to purchase coach seats on another airline at a huge cost. Their original flights were business. What a mess it was for them.
@JeffK
That is not how interline agreements between airlines are designed to work. If the ticket was issued on UA stock via UA or a travel agency, then the payment discussion is between UA and TK. TK would not know about payment until they uplift the coupon for your brother's flight and send it to UA for their portion of the fare. Even if UA did not receive payment from your brother, this does not...
@JeffK
That is not how interline agreements between airlines are designed to work. If the ticket was issued on UA stock via UA or a travel agency, then the payment discussion is between UA and TK. TK would not know about payment until they uplift the coupon for your brother's flight and send it to UA for their portion of the fare. Even if UA did not receive payment from your brother, this does not stop TK from receiving the payment credit from UA. These debits and credit transactions between airlines can take weeks to several months to sort out.
There is absolutely more to the story.
Karma can be a very vindictive b-tch. And its just bad juju to ignore it. I would reach out to the carrier to give them an opportunity to correct their error. After that it's up to them to correct it. At least I tried.
He’ll end up having to pay at check in, which will involve time at ticket counter before being able to check in.
In this situation, if you are flagged and asked for payment at check in (or much after you book your ticket), do they charge you the amount you originally bought your ticket for or the current price of that ticket?
The amount you purchased the ticket for.
The good old days of calling the airline to 'confirm' your tickets.
By the way, @Ben did you actually leave a hint?
I had a Lufthansa flight that was booked in their version of basic economy. There was a schedule change so I called in to rebook which took forever because they said it was a “non changeable fare”. Eventually I got a new ticket number under the same PNR.
A month later there was another schedule change so I called in again. This time they refused to change the ticket because there was no coupon from...
I had a Lufthansa flight that was booked in their version of basic economy. There was a schedule change so I called in to rebook which took forever because they said it was a “non changeable fare”. Eventually I got a new ticket number under the same PNR.
A month later there was another schedule change so I called in again. This time they refused to change the ticket because there was no coupon from the previous change. I was left with an impossible itinarary.
I eventually filed a complaint with the U.S. DOT and then LH refunded me.
Airlines need to move to a different system. Using record locators, tickets and coupons seems like extra duplicate layers looking for trouble.
As the customer, you do not have to do anything in this situation (legally or morally). You did not do anything wrong. Most likely, the correct charge will post around the time of the flight. If it does not, congrats, you somehow got a free flight. But the odds of that happening are incredibly low.
The one exception to this would be if you 100% need to catch that flight for a job interview or...
As the customer, you do not have to do anything in this situation (legally or morally). You did not do anything wrong. Most likely, the correct charge will post around the time of the flight. If it does not, congrats, you somehow got a free flight. But the odds of that happening are incredibly low.
The one exception to this would be if you 100% need to catch that flight for a job interview or family emergency or something. In that case I would contact the airline directly to verify that the ticket is good, and if I was *still* highly concerned, I might book a cheap economy back-up with miles).
the ticket may be existing, with a valid ticket number, but the status may be suspended. once I booked an error fare on Kent Airways starting in Australia and first flight on Thai, the ticket was never cancelled but the airline changed the status to suspended. I would have not known but someone advised me to check the ticket status on Saudia website and it indeed showed as suspended.
I’ll call the airline for an innocuous request - change seats or select meal option etc. I’d assume if there’s a visible issue and I have a competent agent, (s)he’d call out and it’ll be fixed.
Ethically, when it comes to airlines, screw ethics. All their decisions are driven by financial motives, so will be mine.
It's a corporation. It's not going to love you back.
@DenB
True that.
Really depends on what you value and the individual circumstances.
For example, have a critically urgent business or personal meeting taking place? Have non-refundable hotels and bookings? The bottom line is that the airline could deny you boarding based on this, so you should cover your bases and get it sorted out.
Have a ton of flexibility and/or backup plans? You could probably risk it. Also depends on how much money it is. If it's...
Really depends on what you value and the individual circumstances.
For example, have a critically urgent business or personal meeting taking place? Have non-refundable hotels and bookings? The bottom line is that the airline could deny you boarding based on this, so you should cover your bases and get it sorted out.
Have a ton of flexibility and/or backup plans? You could probably risk it. Also depends on how much money it is. If it's a $100 economy ticket along the coastline, you're not getting away with that much. If it's a $5k business class ticket, there's more grounds for trying to sneak it.
I'd book a cancellable ticket as a backup. Don't want to show up at the airport the day of and not have tickets that the airline accepts. Especially for a 3rd party booking through Amex.
High likelyhood they get charged shortly after the flight.
Wow, you're on a streak.
Terrible advice.
Having duplicate bookings is almost a sure way to get you booking canceled.
Really that much fear and trauma from visiting Istanbul?
Or is it just the PTSD.
Oh man, totally forgot about that. Such a rookie mistake Eskimo pie. By chance, are you an Eskimo brother?
We cool bro.
Call the airline now and get it sorted.
Had a flight leg years ago where the carrier didn’t receive payment despite having us having confirmed tickets. It was different than the poster as it was a points/IROPS/partners messy situation but when we went to board our flight we were denied boarding and told payment wasn’t received. Totally shocked us as we literally had our boarding passes in hand. We needed to pay full price there...
Call the airline now and get it sorted.
Had a flight leg years ago where the carrier didn’t receive payment despite having us having confirmed tickets. It was different than the poster as it was a points/IROPS/partners messy situation but when we went to board our flight we were denied boarding and told payment wasn’t received. Totally shocked us as we literally had our boarding passes in hand. We needed to pay full price there at the gate and then we would be permitted to board. (We paid and eventually got reimbursed by the airline that screwed it all up.)
He will be charged. The airline's revenue accounting system will catch it. When the person flies, each flight cpn will be audited against the sale information. If he is not charged before, the system will kick out the very first coupons with a flown not sold indicator and a quick investigation will show that he was never charged and the airline will bill him then.
The ethics: I leave everyone to decide for themselves.
Similar but different situation happened to me about 5 years ago. Transferred Citi TY points to a major program for a saver level business class redemption. Transfer wouldn't go through. Called Citi. While I was on the phone with them, the miles showed up in my account, but the TY points were never taken out of my Citi account. Was prepared to get denied boarding for some reason but had no issues at all with the flight.
I'd call Amex to complain about my MRs not posting
Maintain plausible deniability, the customer has done everything they needed too, of course they need to be ready for a request for payment before, during and after the flight.
After 40 years in the airline industry, half of it in airport operations, I will say so many things can go wrong in a situation like this. The problem will most likely become apparent when a gate agent won’t be able to “scan” you on board. The gate agent with strict instructions to close the aircraft door before departure for an on-time departure and little or no ticketing skills will likely deny boarding. Is that something you want to risk?
If hints are true, EU261 cash out, cha-ching!!!!
This happened to me once on an AA flight about 2 years ago. I am an idiot and just did not know my card was never charged because I am irresponsible and did not look and just pay my statement each month lol. I tried to check-in the day of and it told me to see agent without a reason. So of course I assumed I got the dreaded extra security check thing. However she...
This happened to me once on an AA flight about 2 years ago. I am an idiot and just did not know my card was never charged because I am irresponsible and did not look and just pay my statement each month lol. I tried to check-in the day of and it told me to see agent without a reason. So of course I assumed I got the dreaded extra security check thing. However she told me my card so not charged and just asked for payment. That was that. However I would not risk that if you know going in they did not charge.
You have the qualities to be a politician. You are an idiot, as you admit.
IMO, the most difficult part is trying to explain the issue to any airline representative and making sure it's understood correctly. Therefore, if the traveler in question has the means, maybe it's easier to simply buy some fully refundable tickets as a backup in case the issue shows up at check-in (which I'd do in person and as soon as the airline counters open).
I've stayed at hotels where I have never been charged.
No good deed goes unpunished. I would not proactively try to sort this out (whether by phone or otherwise).
Do I have a ticket number? Yes? That's good for me.
As to ethics, my obligation is to have presented a valid credit card. If the airline wants to charge me after the fact, fine. It's not my responsibility, practically or ethically, to do the job of their FP&A team.
Yeah, proactively trying to sort this out over the phone might even result in the passenger being charged twice. And then the airline would be in no rush to refund any money, especially if they're not able to understand what went wrong in the first place.
Lawyers frequently lack ethics. Look at the post....knowingly taking services without paying. Presenting a card is not the same as paying.
One is minded to believe that accepting goods or services (not gifts) without paying could be considered to be theft?
Some might be unperturbed by the situation, I for one would not sleep at night knowing that I had not payed.