AOPA credit card --- WARNING.

Just asking. Is that stated anywhere? Usually things like that are. If not,
they should be. It's not all that difficult. I don't do hotels all that
often and I would want to be told that specifically. It would certainly have
cured this problem.

mike regish

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
In a previous article, "mike regish" said:
Did you tell them that if they didn't show they would be responsible for
one night's payment.

Mike, that's why they call it "guaranteeing" the reservation. You risk
having to pay for a night you wont be there in return for the guarantee
that they won't give the room away if you're a little bit late arriving.
I don't know of a hotel in North America that doesn't operate that way.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"Wonder what diamonds do to lusers though."
"When attached to the teeth of a blade turning at 7000rpm, a darn fine
job."
-- Peter N. M. Hansteen and D. Joseph Creighton

Did you tell them that if they didn't show they would be responsible for
one night's payment.

Yes. Over and over, abundantly. With a guaranteed reservation, we'll hold
the suite all night.

The six home Iowa Hawkeye Big Ten football games are our biggest weekends of
the year. Rates go up 30%, and a two night minimum stay is required -- and
we still turn hundreds of people away. It's what gets us through the long,
dead winter ahead.

Just a few weeks ago a woman booked the Red Baron Suite for both nights, and
we pre-authorized the entire weekend's amount on her credit card.
Everything went through VISA just fine, we told her about the 7 day
cancellation policy (on football weekends, we demand a week's notice, so
that we are assured of re-booking the suite in the event of cancellation),
and we mailed her a reminder postcard, outlining what she had agreed to do.

When she didn't show up on Friday night of game weekend, we held the suite
open for her all night long -- turning away dozens of potential guests. I
called her first thing Saturday morning, and received no answer. I left her
a personal message, telling her that we were holding her "guaranteed" suite
for her, and held my breath.

She never showed up again Saturday night.

Ten days later, she called, spitting mad that we had charged her for ONE
night's stay. (I ate the other $150.) She just wouldn't hear of how
wounded WE were, and called me every name in the book. She then picked up
her phone, called her credit card company, disputed the charge -- and they
immediately reversed our charge AND charged us a $15 "processing fee" to
boot.

We are now in the middle of "the paper chase" with VISA -- but I guarantee
we will lose the battle even though we followed standard procedure to the
letter.

There is no honor among thieves, and what she did to us is no different than
if she had stolen a DVD player from her suite. Yet under the new credit
laws, VISA credits her -- and docks us -- no questions asked.

What VISA is now being allowed to do to their vendors under the guise of
"fairness to the customer" is going to destroy the credit card system in
America. (Which may not be a bad thing.) EVERY consumer is going to pay
more because of scumbags like this woman, and actions like hers will become
more widespread as more deadbeats discover this new way to "beat the
system."

By the way -- in case anyone is wondering, we've never been ripped off by a
pilot. Pilots ALWAYS leave clean suites, ALWAYS tip the housekeepers, and
ALWAYS put gas in the courtesy van when they're done.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:

Did you tell them that if they didn't show they would be responsible for
one night's payment.


Yes. Over and over, abundantly. With a guaranteed reservation, we'll hold
the suite all night.

I've twice been on the reverse side of this situation where a hotel
gave me a guaranteed reservation and then failed to hold a room
available. Once the room had been reserved with either Visa or
Mastercard and the hotel basically told us that we were on our own
but could use the pay phone in the lobby to search for another place
to stay. Complaining later to the credit card company got us
nowhere. The other time an AMEX card had been used to hold the
reservation and the treatment was quite different. They
apologized for having overbooked, arranged transportation to
another hotel and paid for my first night's stay there plus a few
free phone calls so I could let others know where I was staying.
I heard similar stories from others and apparently AMEX had a
much stricter policy of making both the hotels and customers
adhere to the guaranteed reservation policies.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:Y0cqd.98323$V41.97674@attbi_s52...

We are now in the middle of "the paper chase" with VISA -- but I guarantee
we will lose the battle even though we followed standard procedure to the
letter.

Do you have any other legal recourse to this noshow? Would it be worthwhile
for a collection agency to get involved?

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:Nlspd.150701$R05.147436@attbi_s53...

One lesser known fact about credit card companies is that they will screw
the VENDOR far more readily than they will their customers.

Over the past couple of years we have had a handful of guests with
guaranteed reservations not show up at the inn, who were charged for one
night's stay. Two of them simply called their credit card companies and
disputed the charge -- at which point the credit card company immediately
credited them and charged us back, no questions asked!

It was then up to US to "prove" to VISA that the guest had stayed with
us -- which, of course, they had not. Despite the fact that these
guests insisted on "guaranteed reservations", despite the fact that we had
pre-authorized their stay on their credit card, despite the fact that we
had mailed post cards to their home, reminding them of their
reservation -- and despite the fact that we followed VISA's own procedures
for no-shows to the letter -- we were totally helpless, and had to eat the
bill. No amount of documentation or phone calls mattered to VISA.

THAT is the real credit card scandal that is sweeping America right now --
but no one outside of the industry knows (or, quite frankly) cares about
it. But we ALL pay for scumbags like these in the end.


I agree that it's entirely proper to charge a no-show for the one night
stay, but unless you turned someone else away because of the guaranteed
reservation what bill are you eating?

To paraphrase another post:

You talk like [VISA] owes you something. If you don't want to use their
damned [service]-- don't.

If [VISA] charges you 20% interest -- and you're dumb enough to use
their card [services]-- who cares? It's not like there aren't 100
other credit card companies begging for your business, so either [accept
their rules], or tell 'em to take a hike.

;-)

Jay Honeck wrote:

Kinda timely since PBS's Frontline had a show on credit cards last
Tuesday.
Very eye opening, it seems that a couple of Supreme Court decisions allow
credit card companies to charge whatever interest rate they want and to
raise the interest rate on money already on the balance.
Most of the credit card holders interviewed had never read or didn't
understand the "fine print" in their card contracts.


One lesser known fact about credit card companies is that they will screw
the VENDOR far more readily than they will their customers.

Over the past couple of years we have had a handful of guests with
guaranteed reservations not show up at the inn, who were charged for one
night's stay. Two of them simply called their credit card companies and
disputed the charge -- at which point the credit card company immediately
credited them and charged us back, no questions asked!

It was then up to US to "prove" to VISA that the guest had stayed with us --
which, of course, they had not. Despite the fact that these guests
insisted on "guaranteed reservations", despite the fact that we had
pre-authorized their stay on their credit card, despite the fact that we had
mailed post cards to their home, reminding them of their reservation -- and
despite the fact that we followed VISA's own procedures for no-shows to the
letter -- we were totally helpless, and had to eat the bill. No amount of
documentation or phone calls mattered to VISA.

THAT is the real credit card scandal that is sweeping America right now --
but no one outside of the industry knows (or, quite frankly) cares about it.
But we ALL pay for scumbags like these in the end.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:Nlspd.150701$R05.147436@attbi_s53...
Kinda timely since PBS's Frontline had a show on credit cards last
Tuesday.
Very eye opening, it seems that a couple of Supreme Court decisions allow
credit card companies to charge whatever interest rate they want and to
raise the interest rate on money already on the balance.
Most of the credit card holders interviewed had never read or didn't
understand the "fine print" in their card contracts.

One lesser known fact about credit card companies is that they will screw
the VENDOR far more readily than they will their customers.

Over the past couple of years we have had a handful of guests with
guaranteed reservations not show up at the inn, who were charged for one
night's stay. Two of them simply called their credit card companies and
disputed the charge -- at which point the credit card company immediately
credited them and charged us back, no questions asked!

It was then up to US to "prove" to VISA that the guest had stayed with
us -- which, of course, they had not. Despite the fact that these
guests insisted on "guaranteed reservations", despite the fact that we had
pre-authorized their stay on their credit card, despite the fact that we
had mailed post cards to their home, reminding them of their
reservation -- and despite the fact that we followed VISA's own procedures
for no-shows to the letter -- we were totally helpless, and had to eat the
bill. No amount of documentation or phone calls mattered to VISA.

THAT is the real credit card scandal that is sweeping America right now --
but no one outside of the industry knows (or, quite frankly) cares about
it. But we ALL pay for scumbags like these in the end.

That is unfortunate, but did you really "lose" money? The card companies
make the money from the card holders, not the vendors. If no service was
received then you can't charge. Now this then gets into a discussion of a
"confirmed reservation" rather than a "regular reservation."

I would not go so far as to say it is a scandal or that they are scumbags.
Surely they are inconsiderate, but I think you overstate the case.

Did you have to clean the room when they didn't show up? Did you turn away
other guests? What you discuss is all part of the service industry. When
you are in that business you (hopefully) understand that you have to deal
with people and you cannot always choose your clients, though I suppose that
would be nice. Until that day comes, i am afraid you will have to deal with
all types of people and with the standard business practices.


--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Dick" wrote in message ...

That is unfortunate, but did you really "lose" money? The card companies
make the money from the card holders, not the vendors.

You couldn't be more wrong. Credit card companies charge the 'vendors'
a fee for each and every transaction. I fought with VISA for four months
over a disputed charge where they gave credit to the card user and refused
to refund the transaction fee they charged me.
The so-called customer used a credit card to sign up two people for a
conference. I paid the conference center based on a head count that included
him and his wife. I showed VISA the signed contract that put a date limit on
refunds. The customer did not provide any proof that they had ever
cancelled, much less on or before the cancellation date. VISA refused to
honor the charge and left me holding the bag. We no longer accept credit
cards for conference registration. I put most of the blame on the scumbag
deadhead.
Have you never noticed signs near cash registers that deny the use of a
credit card for sales below a minimum purchase? Have you never noticed some
'vendors' will offer a discount to customers that pay cash?

"Casey Wilson" wrote in message
news:z%bqd.2405$wr6.140@trnddc04...

"Dick" wrote in message
...

That is unfortunate, but did you really "lose" money? The card companies
make the money from the card holders, not the vendors.

You couldn't be more wrong. Credit card companies charge the
'vendors' a fee for each and every transaction.

No, you couldn't be more wrong. Vendors choose the prices, consumers hold
the cards. Consumers make the purchases. The fees are passed to the
consumers.

Again, I asked if he actually "lost money" in services or other goods.


I fought with VISA for four months
over a disputed charge where they gave credit to the card user and refused
to refund the transaction fee they charged me.
The so-called customer used a credit card to sign up two people for a
conference. I paid the conference center based on a head count that
included him and his wife. I showed VISA the signed contract that put a
date limit on refunds. The customer did not provide any proof that they
had ever cancelled, much less on or before the cancellation date. VISA
refused to honor the charge and left me holding the bag. We no longer
accept credit cards for conference registration. I put most of the blame
on the scumbag deadhead.
Have you never noticed signs near cash registers that deny the use of
a credit card for sales below a minimum purchase? Have you never noticed
some 'vendors' will offer a discount to customers that pay cash?

I've noticed that also, all balances were paid in full, and I only use the
AOPA card for aviation purposes to get the 5% rebate and then pay in full.
And yet the rate goes up on recurring balances, while they offer 4% transfer
credit.

Read the fine print, any payments made pay off the lower interest rate debt
first while the higher "revolving balance" interest rate continues to
accrue. Some companies do apply payments equally to all debt at different
rates based on the ratio on each debt.

BT

"RS" wrote in message
news:m3opd.97109$5K2.54232@attbi_s03...
If you have an AOPA/MBNA credit card then you should check the APR on your
last statements. MBNA has been raising the APR on AOPA cardholders, even
if you pay on time.

So check your credit card statements and call AOPA credit card services to
complain.
And also call MBNA to drop the rate back down.