Visa, MasterCard and several banks have agreed to a $6 billion dollar cash settlement with retailers and merchants who accuse the card processing companies and the banks of colluding and price fixing. More important than the financial settlement is the fine print that will allow merchants and retailers to have leeway in their pricing.
Merchants/retailers may either discount prices for those who wish to pay by cash, something that was prohibited before, or, introduce a surcharge for credit card users.
Airlines, already sensing another fee opportunity will certainly not discount their fares. The surcharge would most probably be the quickest way to goose up their revenue.
In Europe, Lufthansa, among others, already has a "surcharge" for the use of credit card built into their fare calculation.
Airlines will likely argue that the travelers are receiving points and rebates of up to 4% on air travel, and airlines are among the largest merchants processing several billion dollars in credit card charges. They will be very eager to shave a percentage or two of these massive amounts by passing the cost back to the traveler, unless the traveler uses the airline's own brand of credit card. The system is already in place as most of the major carriers have their own branded credit cards.
We shall stay tuned for this, but the airlines are already working on the possibilities.
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