Paying an airline for a seat assignment shouldn’t be difficult. Air Canada somehow managed to make it one.
We have an upcoming Air Canada flight booked with miles, and our award tickets don’t include complimentary seat assignments. Rather than leave things to chance, I decided to pay for seats in advance.
My plan was to use my Ritz-Carlton Card and have the charge reimbursed through its annual airline incidental credit.
I selected our seats, entered the card information and clicked the payment button.
Instead of a confirmation, Air Canada gave me this:
We’re sorry, we weren’t able to process your payment. Please try again. If the issue persists, please try another form of payment. (RBRW-EIP-605)
I checked the card information and tried again.
Same error.
Maybe Air Canada didn’t like the Ritz-Carlton Card, which I thought was interesting because it’s issued by Chase, the same bank that issues the Air Canada co-branded card. I tried my American Express Platinum Card instead.
Nope. Same result.
This Isn’t A New Air Canada Problem
Once I started searching online, I discovered this wasn’t a one-off problem with my reservation or credit cards.
Travelers have been reporting similar Air Canada payment errors for years. As usually happens with a nagging website problem, there’s also a seemingly endless collection of workarounds that people claim fixed it for them.
Some suggested:
- Entering the billing address in all capital letters
- Using the U.S. version of the Air Canada website
- Entering the complete nine-digit ZIP Code
- Turning off a VPN
- Try another browser or the Air Canada app
- Using a different credit card
- Paying with PayPal
None of them worked.
PayPal also never appeared as a payment option during the process, so that supposed workaround wasn’t available to me.
The Easy Fix That Finally Worked
Eventually, I thought of one more possible fix. Instead of entering my credit card information during the seat-selection process, I first added the card to the payment methods saved in my Air Canada account.
I then returned to the reservation and selected the seats again. This time, when Air Canada asked for payment, my saved credit card information was already there.
I submitted the payment, and it went through.
No mysterious error. No additional card. No phone call to Air Canada.
Try This Before Calling Air Canada
There’s no guarantee this workaround will fix every Air Canada payment problem. Judging from the number of different solutions people have reported, the same generic error message may appear for several unrelated reasons.
But if you’re having trouble paying for a seat assignment, an upgrade, a baggage fee or another incidental purchase on the Air Canada website, try saving your credit card to your Air Canada account first.
It only takes a minute, and it may save you from repeatedly entering the same information—or waiting on hold for an Air Canada representative.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
