Dear Alex,
Living in Europe but travelling frequently to Asia, I tried to book two return business class seats online with United Airlines from Ho Chi Minh to Hong Kong. However, I was unable to pay with a credit or charge card since United requires that passengers have a US billing address. Why should this be the case?
When in Vietnam, I tried to book with the Novotel in Nha Trang. But I can only get confirmation of a room provided I send over details of the credit card, plus photocopies of both sides of the card, and a signature via an unsecured site. Do you think this hotel has a crazy policy?
Do N Tran, Luxembourg
Alex replies:
Travellers in the West take the simplicity of booking online or by phone for granted, but your experiences are a reminder that matters can be very different in the developing world and especially in Vietnam, where there is a lot of credit card fraud.
United tells me that travellers departing Vietnam should use a travel agent if they experience problems when using their credit card.
As for Novotel, your experiences might suggest you were dealing with an employee who was interpreting the rules to the utmost degree. But it seems there are discrepancies between banks in Vietnam as to what exactly is required when submitting credit card details. And as [Novotel’s operating company] Accor’s hotels in Vietnam use a variety of banks, there is no common procedure.
An Accor spokesman says that in general, “guests booking any of our ten properties in Vietnam online with accorhotels.com will be contacted by the hotel after the reservation is received, requesting the credit card CVC [security] number [on the reverse of the card]. While the procedures vary from bank to bank, there should be no need to furnish copies of the credit card or signature evidence when using Accor’s website. However, this procedure varies if third-party websites are used, even when booking Accor hotels.”
