Not all visas are equal

[daedalus]

Booking inter-island flights in Hawai'i via internet for upcoming holiday I discovered that neither Aloha Airlines nor Hawaiian Air will accept credit cards (Visa, Mastercard etc)from outside the USA. (in this case Luxembourg and UK, depending on card).
Anyone any idea why? I thought a Visa was a visa was a visa.
Also, one of the two airlines (can't remember which), says that cards from Canada or Australia are OK, but not others.
Maybe they don't want foreign tourists?

[PAXboy]

Many carriers won't do this. On one trip to the USA, I needed to change the return BA booking and the web site would not let me do it - because the card was UK and I was not in the UK. Nor could I do it by phone, I had to go to the BA ticket desk at EWR.

This sort of thing is usually stated to be anti money laundering but who knows?

[20driver]

visa - not everywhere

Also some sites have this enabled as an anti theft step. A lot depends on the back room company that actually does the processing but I've being stuck with this problem before.
20driver

[cavortingcheetah]

It is comparatively easy to acquire a US credit card even if you live in England. Wachovia Bank, which is on the net can probably sort this out but be advised that though Wachovia might be the name, watching overya is not their game.
For international travellers, voyagers and tourists, nothing but nothing beats the American Express Platinum card.

[slim_slag]

Even with a 'US' credit card, you will still run into problems with some sites if the registered address is in the UK. United is a real pain for this, whereas Southwest has it covered. Re cards, now Diners has a mastercard logo it beats high end Amex cards.

[cavortingcheetah]

Yes. That is quite true. You would need an American side billing address and you would have to arrange for any transfers to pay this account to be made in US$. It's not difficult to do this, just tedious.
One also has to be somewhat careful that you do not use a foreign credit card to pay for goods or services which could be deemed to be UK sourced, otherwise the revenue will be down on you for what they term a 'constructive remittance'. For example, were you to buy an airline ticket in Singapore for, say, a BA flight from London to Johannesburg, you might well run foul of this little twist.

[daedalus]

Visas

Thanks all for feedback. Strange thing is, I had no problem with the Luxembourg and UK Visa and Mastercard for booking hotels, hire cars etc. in Hawai'i - just airlines. Finally solved by booking air tickets through a Honolulu travel agency (Panda travel) who accepted cards over the internet with no problem.

[Bangkokeasy]

I think the original problem here may be caused simply by poor website design, which will have created a compulsory field for the US "Zip code" and "state". Many US based sites used to have this problem, but are slowly waking up the fact that there are people outside the USA who might just want to buy their product. Remember that we are talking about a country here where until very recently, banks have been restricted to operating state-by-state. And has anyone ever tried to cash sterling travellers cheques in the USA?

[cavortingcheetah]

All too true I fear and not just with credit cards either. The USA should zip along and become aware that there exist addresses and time zones that fall outside those of the Continental US of A, Canada and other dependant territories.