Qantas have announced that they will be moving from a fixed fee for payments made by credit card to a percentage-based card payment fee from 1st September 2016.
This change, which comes in response to updated RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) rules announced in May, will also affect its low fare subsidiary Jetstar.
Current Fees (until 31st August 2016)
Qantas’ current credit card payments are charged a flat fee of AU$7 for Domestic flights and AU$30 for International Flights.
The New Fee Structure
- Payments made by credit cards, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Diners, will attract a fee of 1.3%.
- The airline indicates that for an average domestic return fare of AU$400, the fee would be AU$5.20, while an average International fare costing AU$2000 would be charged AU$26.
- In actual terms this means that some will pay more, others will save, and fees will be capped at $11 for domestic and trans-Tasman fares and $70 for international fares.
- Qantas says the cap will allow the airline to continue to recoup part of their cost associated with accepting card payment and is designed to ensure that passengers will have some certainty about their additional costs before making payment.
Low-fee and fee-free payment options
Customers paying with a Debit Card will be charged 0.6% while those making payment using BPAY 7 days or more before the flight’s schedule departure or POLi will not attract any additional payment charge.
What is the ‘cost associated with accepting card payment’?
Qantas has clarified that the charges go towards merchant service fees, payment processing services and fraud mitigation costs.
Jetstar’s plans
Jetstar is currently finalising the details of their charges and once these are announced, we will update the charges, also to take effect on 1st September.
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