Difference between paying for a flight with bitcoins and using a credit card ...

[Elwar]

I have used cheapair.com for all of my flight purchases for years. I live internationally, buy international tickets all the time. No problems with cheapair paying with bitcoins.

I just bought a ticket for my girlfriend here in Thailand on kiwi.com because the only flights available on cheapair were $4k+ while the one I found on kiwi were $1500.

I actually bought the ticket a few weeks ago but when I went to print it out for her visa I saw that they never booked the flight sending her e-mails about verifying my payment.

I booked it again. I had to send them a copy of my passport, then a selfie. Then they e-mailed me with a phone number to call. I called the number and they verified more information, and now I have to wait for a third party service to get back to me to see if I'm ever so lucky to have the transaction go through.

I hate when I go from bitcoin back into the stone age of legacy finance. Everyone needs to just catch up already.

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[Xester]

I have used cheapair.com for all of my flight purchases for years. I live internationally, buy international tickets all the time. No problems with cheapair paying with bitcoins.

I just bought a ticket for my girlfriend here in Thailand on kiwi.com because the only flights available on cheapair were $4k+ while the one I found on kiwi were $1500.

I actually bought the ticket a few weeks ago but when I went to print it out for her visa I saw that they never booked the flight sending her e-mails about verifying my payment.

I booked it again. I had to send them a copy of my passport, then a selfie. Then they e-mailed me with a phone number to call. I called the number and they verified more information, and now I have to wait for a third party service to get back to me to see if I'm ever so lucky to have the transaction go through.

I hate when I go from bitcoin back into the stone age of legacy finance. Everyone needs to just catch up already.

Finally at last the dream of travelling via air transport riding in an airplane is already realized. This was just a dream few years ago and we thought that Japan will have the first airlines who will accept bitcoin. This is just a sign that bitcoin is slowly being mainstream in our economy. Sooner or later we can go to shopping malls using bitcoin as payments.

[Dluretic]

I think it is more convenient to use bitcoin, so the mobile phone is portable, and it can be used freely in various countries in the future.
So I think that's the advantage of bitcoin.

[Edward Finney]

I have used cheapair.com for all of my flight purchases for years. I live internationally, buy international tickets all the time. No problems with cheapair paying with bitcoins.

I just bought a ticket for my girlfriend here in Thailand on kiwi.com because the only flights available on cheapair were $4k+ while the one I found on kiwi were $1500.

I actually bought the ticket a few weeks ago but when I went to print it out for her visa I saw that they never booked the flight sending her e-mails about verifying my payment.

I booked it again. I had to send them a copy of my passport, then a selfie. Then they e-mailed me with a phone number to call. I called the number and they verified more information, and now I have to wait for a third party service to get back to me to see if I'm ever so lucky to have the transaction go through.

I hate when I go from bitcoin back into the stone age of legacy finance. Everyone needs to just catch up already.

ID say the main difference is the flight will end up costing you a hell of allot more when you look back in 5 years. Airlines in Korea are accepting crypto though! South Korea in general has amazing infrastructure to use your crypto in general. They are being very proactive

[Elwar]

ID say the main difference is the flight will end up costing you a hell of allot more when you look back in 5 years. Airlines in Korea are accepting crypto though! South Korea in general has amazing infrastructure to use your crypto in general. They are being very proactive

Looking back 5 years I'm glad I made the decision to make bitcoin my primary currency and only sell for fiat when I needed to.

So every time I paid for anything with bitcoins meant that I didn't have to hold fiat on the off chance that I was going to need to spend it.

[jseverson]

What exactly went wrong though? Whenever I use my card for flights, the payment typically confirms within a few seconds. I only ever use the actual carrier's site to book though, so could it be a problem with kiwi.com? Legacy finance may not be the problem here.

I've also never used Bitcoins to book flights before so I'll be checking out cheapair.com. Thanks!

[NoG-NoG]

That is a good idea for those people who loves to travel a lot and uses bitcoins. They can now travel a lot with cheaper fees and at the same time there will be no hassle for them to travel. There transaction for there travel will be so easy and more convenient.

[RodeoX]

I have a hunch about what is going on.

Last week I was in contact with Jeff Klee, CEO and founder of Cheap Air. He was sending around a letter to frequent bitcoin fliers. Perhaps you got one also Elwar? They are having a problem with a policy change over at Coinbase. In response they are trying out BitPay as a processor. Perhaps this is leading to chaos in processing transactions? There is also an issue processing transactions from certain wallets. To use BitPay you have to use a BIP-70 compatible wallet. If you don't have your money in such a wallet then you have to transfer it to one, then transfer it again to BitPay.

I know they are working on this and committed to offering a bitcoin payment option. I use CheapAir to buy tickets all the time and if they were to stop taking bitcoin I would rarely use them anymore. Considering I have flown 11,871 miles so far this year, I doubt they want to give up my money or Elwars money.

[squatz1]

While using bitcoin may seem nice, there are a lot of  protections when you’re buying things with a credit card and benefits to it. For ine, you have until the end of the billing period to pay. You (most likely) also get reward points for this purchase, maybe traveller protectioj depending on your card

I’d much rather be ptotected with such a large expense

[Elwar]

I have a hunch about what is going on.

Last week I was in contact with Jeff Klee, CEO and founder of Cheap Air. He was sending around a letter to frequent bitcoin fliers. Perhaps you got one also Elwar? They are having a problem with a policy change over at Coinbase. In response they are trying out BitPay as a processor. Perhaps this is leading to chaos in processing transactions? There is also an issue processing transactions from certain wallets. To use BitPay you have to use a BIP-70 compatible wallet. If you don't have your money in such a wallet then you have to transfer it to one, then transfer it again to BitPay.

I know they are working on this and committed to offering a bitcoin payment option. I use CheapAir to buy tickets all the time and if they were to stop taking bitcoin I would rarely use them anymore. Considering I have flown 11,871 miles so far this year, I doubt they want to give up my money or Elwars money.

No, cheapair has been fine for me. The flight I was taking was from Bangkok to Tahiti which is not that common of a flight so cheapair did not have many options. I had to go with an Australian company that flies to Tahiti and Bangkok very often. They only took credit cards...which is a huge hassle.

[Elwar]

While using bitcoin may seem nice, there are a lot of  protections when you’re buying things with a credit card and benefits to it. For ine, you have until the end of the billing period to pay. You (most likely) also get reward points for this purchase, maybe traveller protectioj depending on your card

I’d much rather be ptotected with such a large expense

I've had the same credit card for the past 20 years or so...the points I've accumulated might get be a domestic flight...though the restrictions on those flights keeps going up as well as the amount of points that a flight costs.

While having bitcoin in my wallet and not worrying about keeping fiat to spend on such things means I can retire.

[RodeoX]

I have a hunch about what is going on.

Last week...

No, cheapair has been fine for me. The flight I was taking was from Bangkok to Tahiti which is not that common of a flight so cheapair did not have many options. I had to go with an Australian company that flies to Tahiti and Bangkok very often. They only took credit cards...which is a huge hassle.

Ah I see. I thought CheapAir was suddenly asking for weird documentation. Something related to transitioning over to BitPay.  

[Kprawn]

I like the https://www.kiwi.com interface, where they show you the map with the most common destinations and how much it

cost in a specific currency. Just a pity that they do not have BTC in the drop down box under currencies. I think it is time for us to

send those emails, asking them when they will start accepting Bitcoin.  Thanks OP, nice site...  {Just give us a update or

review, after you were done with them}

[OMGyasuo]

I have used cheapair.com for all of my flight purchases for years. I live internationally, buy international tickets all the time. No problems with cheapair paying with bitcoins.

I just bought a ticket for my girlfriend here in Thailand on kiwi.com because the only flights available on cheapair were $4k+ while the one I found on kiwi were $1500.

I actually bought the ticket a few weeks ago but when I went to print it out for her visa I saw that they never booked the flight sending her e-mails about verifying my payment.

I booked it again. I had to send them a copy of my passport, then a selfie. Then they e-mailed me with a phone number to call. I called the number and they verified more information, and now I have to wait for a third party service to get back to me to see if I'm ever so lucky to have the transaction go through.

I hate when I go from bitcoin back into the stone age of legacy finance. Everyone needs to just catch up already.

The difference is that you only pay once when using btc payment, while when you use credit card to pay, you have to use another account to return the money to the bank issued the credit card for you. And the special thing here is that when you pay by credit card you pay extra for your payment.

[Jonsnowstark]

Its good to know there are airlines or booking sites accepting bitcoins are growing in numbers. This is a breakthrough for bitcoin. Travel fast and easy with bitcoin has always been a dream for everyone. Book airfare, hotels, food and tours. There would be less hassle if you just use bitcoins for payment. I hope someday, the whole world will learn to incorporate bitcoin in every trasaction. It is faster and much easier than any other electronic payments.

[ohkkstaaahp]

These two payment methods have the same convenience. I think that the BTC payment also takes charge and credit card also takes charge. But paying for your credit card takes time to the bank to periodically declare funds and credit lines. BTC you can make online at home fast.

[Dmitry.Vastov]

I have used cheapair.com for all of my flight purchases for years. I live internationally, buy international tickets all the time. No problems with cheapair paying with bitcoins.

I just bought a ticket for my girlfriend here in Thailand on kiwi.com because the only flights available on cheapair were $4k+ while the one I found on kiwi were $1500.

I actually bought the ticket a few weeks ago but when I went to print it out for her visa I saw that they never booked the flight sending her e-mails about verifying my payment.

I booked it again. I had to send them a copy of my passport, then a selfie. Then they e-mailed me with a phone number to call. I called the number and they verified more information, and now I have to wait for a third party service to get back to me to see if I'm ever so lucky to have the transaction go through.

I hate when I go from bitcoin back into the stone age of legacy finance. Everyone needs to just catch up already.

I don’t know what to say on your issue but I can say one thing for very sure that paying through bitcoin is always better than any other kind of payment method . Making payment through bitcoin, provides you the ease, fast and secure way of making payment and moreover your transaction are very much confidential as it does not involve any third seizure and provides user anonymity and moreover it does not take much time for transactions to take place so I will always prefer paying through bitcoin if my country allows me.

[Corsicoin]

If the payment is throught a bitcoin payment card, it might be through a pre-paid visa. It means it's cheaper on fees and you have the same rights than if you had paid with a VISA.

[clairdelune]

The difference of paying a flight with bitcoin and using a credit card is that when you pay it with bitcoin you pay it right away like in fiat currency not unlike in credit card you book it now then you pay it with a later time, not right away. BTC is just like when you use fiat money but the difference is in BTC it has a transaction fee before you can used it. Credit Card is you credit first what you purchase it not like the BTC that has a transaction fee here when you used the credit card in some of your purchases it has an interest fee. Credit Card is a way of borrowing money from the bank there is a third party that will pay for your purchase if you do not have a cash, in BTC there is no third party involve in your purchase, It is only you and your Crypto wallet no one will hodl your money but BTC is an electronic money that you used to pay online transactions.

[sunnyevening]

But people will eventually need to understand more how bitcoin works, if they will spend it without knowing that the spending they committed will be a great loss when the price of it will be high again.