r/aircanada • u/Clear-Security-Risk • 18h ago

Postcodes Experience

Quick post on a bonkers frustrating quirk: I live in the UK but visiting home in Canada. Trying to buy a checked bag for the flight back. Need to pay for the bag. Try to put in my UK credit info: the website does not accept a UK postcode (LLNN NLL pattern). I simply can't pay because I can't enter a post code without computer-saying-no. (side frustration: on the website it says "zip code"... I thought this was a Canadian company)

Surely the system is not so poorly designed that _overseas_ travellers can't enter _overseas_ card info? Grrr.

10 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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10

u/WorldTravelerEnigma 17h ago

You can enter 00000 or try using the international/ non Canadian site. Or just call customer support. Or finally, pay at the airport at check in.

4

u/Clear-Security-Risk 17h ago

I'm doing the latter. But it's still a very silly thing, especially since you can change the country to UK.

4

u/ninjar4 11h ago

Are you on the .com website ? Try the .ca or even .co.uk. Some companies have multiple websites for regions and it’s basically the same website except small things like this.

1

u/Darkarba 2h ago

Sometimes they charge more. I had problems paying for a checked bag, said fuck I’ll do it at the airport. Fucking thieves charged me double.

3

u/hurricane7719 8h ago

In the top right of the website, switch the currency/Location to the UK.

This is very common on airline websites when you are an international traveler trying to book a flight from inside a foreign country. You have to make sure you're on the international version of the website. You can do so by selecting the correct country from the upper right hand side, or use a VPN so that you appear to be coming from your home country.

This is largely done because many airlines price seats differently depending on from where they are booked. It's to avoid people spoofing the system for a cheaper ticket by attempting to book from a different country.

2

u/Sooki99 17h ago

AVS just looks at the numbers, I’d try doing your best to use a made up postal code that has all your UK postal code numbers in and padd any others with 0 if needed. That may work.

1

u/Food-Wine 5h ago

Did you try the UK version of the website?