I was charged a fee for being charged a fee to upgrade to elite status — and the annoying part is that I had no expectation or reason to believe that I would be charged a fee for being charged a fee to upgrade to elite status.
I Was Charged a Fee For Being Charged a Fee to Upgrade to Elite Status.
I recently took advantage of the offer to upgrade to Gold elite status with Frontier Airlines, which has since expired. Most of the destinations which Frontier Airlines serves are located within the United States. Frontier Airlines is based in Denver, which is located in Colorado, which is within the aforementioned United States…
…so imagine my surprise that my credit card was not only charged a fee for being charged a fee to upgrade to elite status — but the purchase also caught the attention of the fraud department, which resulted in the temporary suspension of the use of my Visa credit card.
Before I was about to set up payment for the latest statement that was posted to my credit card, I found the following two entries that were recorded on the same date:
- Platinum FRONTIER STATUS OFFER SINGAPORE SG for $69.00
- Credit Card Fee VISA INTERNATIONAL SERVICE ASSESSMENT for 69 cents
You read that correctly: the transaction to upgrade to Gold elite status with Frontier Airlines apparently was processed in Singapore — and because of the location where the transaction was processed, I was charged a fee of 69 cents, which is a fee of one percent of the transaction.
Had I known this beforehand, I would have used a different credit card with which I could have avoided such a fee — as well as the inconvenience of not being able to use my credit card until the issue was resolved — but unless I missed it, I did not see anywhere in the official terms and conditions of this offer that the processing of the fee would occur in Singapore, of all places.
Final Boarding Call
I realize that a whopping 69 cents and a minor annoying inconvenience are not going to break me in any way — but knowing the information I know now certainly would have helped for me to be better informed on deciding which credit card to use to pay for upgrading to Gold elite status with Frontier Airlines. I am surprised I was not charged a fee for being charged a fee for being charged a fee.
I find it rather ironic and ridiculous that I used a credit card that was issued in the United States to upgrade my elite status with an airline that is based in the United States and was still charged a Visa International Service Assessment…
…which means that do not assume that transactions in which all entities are based in the United States will be guaranteed to occur in the United States…
Photograph and graphic illustration ©2012 by Brian Cohen; and all photographs ©2021 and ©2022 by Brian Cohen.
