I have this bad habit of waiting too long to buy airline tickets or lock in hotel rooms. In the case of Tunisair, the very purpose of my trip was nearly thwarted thanks to my procrastination and a horrible airline website.
Tunisair Website + My Procrastination = Bad Combination
I like to say “I know my space and my space knows me” but I’m very fallible and will sometimes err in calculating when to purchase an airline ticket. I’m certainly not one of those travelers who likes to lock in as soon as possible. Quite the contrary, I prefer to lock in as late as possible, especially when I am considering multiple destinations.
While in Tunisia, I certainly knew I wanted to fly home on Tunisair, but I also toyed with visiting Algeria as long as I was in the region. That dilemma kept me from booking my Tunisair ticket from Tunis to Montreal until I arrived at the Four Seasons Tunis and found…the flight was sold out.
When that happens, I don’t get afraid…that doesn’t even bother me because I figure, in most cases, people will cancel and seats will open up, especially in a (relatively) large business class cabin.
Sure enough, not more than a hour later the space did open and I went to work attempting to confirm it. But I didn’t except Tunisair to have such a horrible website. It is so clunky and prone to erring out.
Eventually, after failing multiple times to assign seats, I reached the payment page.
Declined.
A call to Capital One did not fix the issue. They did not even show a charge attempt.
I tried again.
Declined.
And again.
Declined.
And again.
Declined.
And then the space disappeared.
Interestingly, this space did not show up on any online travel agency – perhaps it was phantom in the first place.
So I headed over to Sidi Bou Said, with no ticket out and a hotel check-out scheduled for the following morning. It’s not like I could have just extended my stay for one night, since the Tunisair flight to Montreal only runs once per week.
While I was enjoying coffee, I checked space again on my phone and noticed three seats were suddenly available, and the lowest business class fare bucket had opened. Since Tunisair has no loyalty partners and I knew I would be taking the flight, I decided to book via a sketchy online travel agency called SmartFares. Doing so saved me about $130 over other sites (and $300 over Expedia or Orbitz).
This time, I had no trouble with my credit card and my ticket was soon issued.
I also had no problems during check-in the following morning.
CONCLUSION
I cannot pat myself on the back for this – I should have booked this tickets days in advance instead of waiting till less than 24 hours before. Considering economy class (which I probably would have taken had business remained full) was only $400 less than business class, I was fortunate more people did not book business on a nine-hour flight that went nearly 11 hours once our delay and headwinds were factored in.
And the Tunsiair website is really worthless: I tried very hard to book direct, but failed…and my credit card company did not even show a charge attempt. So be warned if booking on the Tunisair website, at least with an American-issued credit card. And do book a bit earlier than I did, at least when possible…
“especially when the……”?
When the what?
Sorry about that. Thanks.
one thing that has confounded me for the past five years is why so many flight bloggers want to fly tunisair when air algerie is right there with a better product, especially given tunisair’s bottom barrel reputation
No visa necessary to visit Tunisia.
I will review Air Algerie…stay tuned.
makes sense
Matthew, clarification, please. By very infallible, do you mean that you are indeed fallible or one level above the Pope?
At least he isn’t one of the fake christians who dont consider Pope a christian when his views clash with their political views. Religion is just a convenience to further politics for many in the US
Geez. That was supposed to be a joke. Lighten up a little.
He wrote very fallible, not infallible…..
I fixed it. I guess I was going all Pope Mathias on everyone, but not intentionally…
I was hoping to see the end of this sentence: Quite the contrary, I prefer to lock in as late as possible, especially when the
But you didnt include it. Please finish the sentence.
Also, you used the word “except” rather than “expect” somewhere, but I cannot find it. They’re very different words with very different meanings. You really should proofread or at least do a double check before you post. Carelessness and lack of attention to detail mar otherwise (generally) entertaining content.
Sorry – I saw that somebody else had commented after I had commented. Please feel free to disregard.
Another grammar cop.
You are fallible, not infallible.
For *expect*, you have written except.
Why is smartfares sketchy?
Do you want to have a parallel blog sharing oics and talking about what you see and experience on your exotic travels, along with travel recommendations for entertainment and sightseeing?
Google it.
No, just here – there used to have Pen & Passport to discuss those sorts of stories, but it’s all under LALF now.
Oh trust me! You have repeatedly shown that you are fallible…not infallible. Please correct.
Calm down class.
LOL
I’m impressed you had the cojones to book through a sketchy site like smartfares. I guess a one segment flight departing the next day mitigates some of the risk. Have you ever been burned by one of these? If so, any issues with a chargeback?
tunisair sucks. just few years ago when I tried no card worked and after searching forums, it seemed they didn’t accept foreign cards
When it comes to that sort of thing, it’s better to just pick up the phone. If you’re in an African/Middle Eastern country and flying with the local airline, it may even be better to resort to the old school approach of visiting a City Ticketing Office (remember those?).
I thought about going upstairs at the airport when I arrived and looking for a ticket counter, but I’m glad I didn’t – they only speak French or Arabic, no English!
I only have one comment. I wish that bloggers or writers of articles such as this one were educated enough in the english langauge that they would know how to spell or knew the meaning of the words they use.
The E in English is capitalized. Also, it’s language, not langauge.
I suppose you enjoyed doing that…
Thanks for heads up because i fly to tunis at least 2 times plus a year until my hubby gets his spousal visa for US long long process so Tunisia is my second home.I will keep this in mind i currently have flown air framce and Lufthansa but maybe tunisair sometime.
I’ve had issues like this with Capital One cards in SE Asia. MasterCards with an one time password process work better but I don’t know what that program is called to check which cards have it beforehand.
It’s not just more exotic airlines like Tunisair. I tried numerous times to book a positioning flight ICN-HND on Asiana a few years ago, and the same thing happened to me. Claimed the credit card was “declined”, no matter which one I used, and like in your case, the card issuers had no record of a charge even being attempted. Eventually I booked the ticket through Orbitz and had no problems. I suspect it’s a problem with cards issued outside the country of the originating flight, but who knows.
I have to ask, though – why didn’t you ask the concierge at the Four Seasons to book it for you? I used to use the hotel travel desks in India all the time for flight and train tickets. Easy way to avoid the obnoxious “convenience fees” and “foreigner surcharges” you used to have to deal with back in the day.
Honestly, those desks don’t exist anymore – I find that concierges are often not great at booking tickets and would go through the same hoops that everyone else does.
Off topic, but if you make it to Algeria, Matthew, try to visit the Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania, outside Algiers. This is the impressive tomb of Cleopatra Selene II, daughter of Egypt’s last pharaoh, Cleopatra VII, and the Roman general Marc Antony. Of Cleopatra’s four children (a son by Julius Caesar and two sons and a daughter by Marc Antony), Cleopatra Selene II was the only one to survive Rome’s conquest of Egypt. She married Mauretania’s King Juba II and when she died he built this enormous, conical stone pyramid for her, himself, and their children.
Algeria isn’t the sort of country you can just pop over and visit as you need a visa and if I recall correctly it’s complicated with a letter from your employer and whatnot.Morocco and Tunisia are easy, usually visa free.Egypt I think online visa now but pretty easy, Libya not sure but guessing difficult?
Hi Matthew
I went through the same experience. However, I figured out the solution!
The payment works only with Mastercard and you should have double validation activated as you will receive and SMS with a code to enter in the website.
I hope this helps you as well as the readers.
Ismail
What a snob you just happen to mention you where staying at the Four Seasons in Tunis get over yourself.
Got the same issue few weeks ago, called Tunisair in Montréal, they said their website accepts debit cards only not credit ones and that they accept cash only at Tunisair office ! Well, quite an experience
LOL.
Dude, what is up with your comment section?? A ton of really crazy grammar people + people like George up there. Sorry people on the internet suck.
Tunisair, FYI
https://www.facebook.com/TUNISAIR.OFFICIELLE/
Tunisair is running by out of date personal that willingly wanting to ruin the company.
Beside the gang of unions that are good only in protesting without any developments.
That company requires complete cleansing feo’ the top the bottom.
It’s become a national shame that it need complete redressement.
Sorry for your unfortunate time money waste.