The Hassle of Buying Plane Tickets
I just about lost my mind today. It was Friday night and it had been a long week of work. I just wanted to relax a little bit and decided to try to find a good deal on plane tickets to Iguazu Falls. My mom and I are going there in January. Should be easy right? WRONG...not in Brazil.
After spending some time searching on the internet I found a great deal on the Brazilian airline TAM. The site was obviously in Portuguese but with some common sense and concentration I figured it out. Sweet, I thought!
And then I reached the payment page....
Paying with my debit card in the US is simple. You just type in your card information or bank account and BAM it's done. Not so easy here. It would not accept my debit card without having to do some extra steps.
So next up: my US credit card. NOPE. It didn't want that card either.
Then I decided, well I guess I will need to activate the credit card I received months ago. I called the number and luckily I was able to speak to someone in English and after a few transfers, some waiting, and some information sharing my card was activated!
YES! I thought...let's book this flight. I go back onto the website...DENIED. It would not accept my credit card. I retyped the information several times and still DENIED.
At this point it has been over an hour and I began to worry I would lose the good price.
So I called the bank AGAIN, spoke to a man for a few minutes, and got disconnected. I called back and ended up getting the same person who helped to activate my card. She remembered me. haha
It turns out that my credit card only has a $R950 limit which is about $400...seriously? Why would someone give you a credit card with $400 as a limit? Sooo she was able to increase my limit and I was FINALLY able to purchase the tickets!
It really makes you appreciate the speed and efficiency of the United States. :)
After spending some time searching on the internet I found a great deal on the Brazilian airline TAM. The site was obviously in Portuguese but with some common sense and concentration I figured it out. Sweet, I thought!
And then I reached the payment page....
Paying with my debit card in the US is simple. You just type in your card information or bank account and BAM it's done. Not so easy here. It would not accept my debit card without having to do some extra steps.
So next up: my US credit card. NOPE. It didn't want that card either.
Then I decided, well I guess I will need to activate the credit card I received months ago. I called the number and luckily I was able to speak to someone in English and after a few transfers, some waiting, and some information sharing my card was activated!
YES! I thought...let's book this flight. I go back onto the website...DENIED. It would not accept my credit card. I retyped the information several times and still DENIED.
At this point it has been over an hour and I began to worry I would lose the good price.
So I called the bank AGAIN, spoke to a man for a few minutes, and got disconnected. I called back and ended up getting the same person who helped to activate my card. She remembered me. haha
It turns out that my credit card only has a $R950 limit which is about $400...seriously? Why would someone give you a credit card with $400 as a limit? Sooo she was able to increase my limit and I was FINALLY able to purchase the tickets!
It really makes you appreciate the speed and efficiency of the United States. :)
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