The journey of trying to eke out a new bit of money from customers never stops, neither in airlines nor at the websites which enable you to book those tickets. Last night, I found myself tapping away at the keyboard furiously as the Missus told me that she had to be airborne for a quick meeting that had been kicked around and postponed a few times. So, as the designated travel planner of the home, I went about looking and booking her a ticket. However, there was something new I noticed for the first time.

MakeMyTrip introduces a new Transaction Charge on corporate bookings?

As I moved forward with the booking on our corporate portal with MakeMyTrip, I noticed a new charge pop-up at the end of the booking flow. MakeMyTrip is now charging an extra 1% of the ticketed amount when you use any credit card on the site. At first, I thought it was due to the fact that I was using an American Express Card, but it turns out using a MasterCard/Visa also attracted the same charge. And it goes away when you use UPI to pay, for instance.

Take a look, here, for instance, at the total fare that turned up.

 

Here is the screen grab with an HDFC Bank MasterCard, after I realised that this added 1% charge was showing up on my American Express Card. I greyed out only some parts which are codes specifically issued to us. You will note an INR 150  convenience fee added, and a 1% transaction charge added on top of that!

But when I switched to UPI, this extra 1% went away.

I was so sure that this charge was new, that I went on and checked a ticket I booked just this past Monday, and it turns out, the charge was not there on that ticket. What is even more blatant is… that on the invoice, it does not show up as a transaction charge but as a booking handling charge? Make up your mind, MMT?

Why is this just another cash grab?

For reference, MakeMyTrip, or even if you book tickets with an airline, routinely charge Convenience Fee, for the better part of a decade. This cost, as per them, is levied on electronic transactions, to cover the cost of electronic payment infrastructure. The convenience, here, is about the charge of booking a ticket from wherever you are, rather than having to visit their offices. Credit Cards or Debit Cards usually charge a Merchant Discount Rate, which gets covered by the Convenience Fees.

However, when for a decade, it was being charged under one head, what is atrocious is to add a new head, and selectively charge these on some tickets issued. While MMT does not seem to be charging these on B2C portal for now, they are charging it on their B2B portal for Credit card issued tickets, and attributing it to payment gateway charges. So basically, some of us, are being double charged for electronic payments, then? And while this might be a test run right now, you might see this on a whole wider range of tickets later?

Bottomline

MakeMyTrip has sneakily started to charge a Convenience Fees plus a new Transaction Charge, which they alternatively also refer to as a Booking Handling Charge when it comes to raising an invoice, but I could find no explanation on their website about what was it for.

Have you noticed a new transaction surcharge on your tickets booked with MakeMyTrip or MMT-owned GoIbibo yet?

---

Liked our articles and our efforts? Please pay an amount you are comfortable with; an amount you believe is the fair price for the content you have consumed. Please enter an amount in the box below and click on the button to pay; you can use Netbanking, Debit/Credit Cards, UPI, QR codes, or any Wallet to pay. Every contribution helps cover the cost of the content generated for your benefit.

(Important: to receive confirmation and details of your transaction, please enter a valid email address in the pop-up form that will appear after you click the ‘Pay Now’ button. For international transactions, use Paypal to process the transaction.)

We are not putting our articles behind any paywall where you are asked to pay before you read an article. We are asking you to pay after you have read the article if you are satisfied with the quality and our efforts.