Way to Russia Talk Lounge

dwood10

After trying over and over to order 2 tickets on Siberian Air (S7) website, I went to a US Travel agent who was qualified to write me paper air tickets to go from Moscow to St. Petersburg to start my Viking River cruise. They took my USA credit card. The S7 web site was not accepting US or UK credit cards according to e-mails from customer service. No explaination given.
I'm using the Way to Russia invitation letter service as the trip has several parts and accomodations and the price is right.

nikir · Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 1:06 pm Post subject:

Like you, I have never been able to book an internal flight in Russia on any airline via their websites, or via the links here on WTR.

I now use zuji who will give alternative airlines, if available to compare timetables and costs, take my Australian Visa card and send a paper ticket by post. Given the difficulties with the Russian airline sites it is probably far better to arrive in the country armed with an old fashioned ticket than rely on an e ticket (hopefully) waiting for you when you check in for your flight.

jds · Frequent Guest Joined: 13 May 2008 Posts: 10

It's fraud protection for them. I just emailed their helpdesk ( callcenter@s7.ru ) when the online form failed. They informed me of the various steps I needed to take to verify that I was the person traveling and the owner of the card. The purchase went through fine after I was authorized.

David T · Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 2:42 pm Post subject:

I could buy a ticket Frankfurt-Novosibirsk with an European credit card without any problem, everything worked out perfectly and even at Novosibirsk's airport they recognized e-tickets!
Probably it's a little bit different with US credit cards
Good luck!

Paul Holmes · VIP Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 911

No problem with a Canadian Card also.
Could be the difficulty in getting the money out of the US Banks.

charles · Lounge Lizard Joined: 11 Mar 2006 Posts: 179 Location: USA

Is this a new policy? I bought tickets in December on the S7 website with a US bank card. If I remember correctly, I used my check (debit) card, and it has a VISA logo. It was a domestic flight.

jds · Frequent Guest Joined: 13 May 2008 Posts: 10

Possibly. I didn't try with a check card though, just my visa credit card. After the form failed a couple of times I called visa and they verified that they weren't blocking the transaction on their side that's why I contacted S7 directly after that.

jds · Frequent Guest Joined: 13 May 2008 Posts: 10

I just booked another ticket with the same card and had no problem (ie: I didn't have to contact them directly and send them security verifying info). It appears they were in a transition the past number of months, changing all their security (there was some post about it on their main page).

Anyway, just wanted to verify that I was able to book online with no problem now using an American credit card.