Pay in instalments when flying Brazilian low cost airline GOL
29/06/2011 by Yeoh Siew Hoon

Just booked a ticket between Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo on the Brazilian low-cost airline GOL and came across two new features that I’ve never noticed on any other LCC website, where the norm tends to be for a rather convoluted and often annoying experience while booking online. Just think of Air Asia and Ryanair. Do you want insurance? Why not?  How about a car? Are you sure?100% sure?  Do you feel like eating onboard?  Etc …

The first feature had to do with payment options.  When you were ready to pay and selected your credit card, you were given several options for payment on instalments.  Yes, the airline enabled me to pay on instalments on my credit card.  That’s credit on your credit, non?

You could either pay your amount in total with no interest, or you could make up to 12 installments with 2.99.a.m. which I assume is the interest rate.  Wait, not yet finished.  If you chose up to 6 installments you were charged no interest.  Amazing!  Now, if they could only offer this service for long-haul first class/suites flights on Singapore Airlines.  Actually, maybe that’s not so good of an idea … I’d likely be paying it off for years.

GOL credit

Next feature …

When the booking was finally confirmed and you were ready to print out your itinerary, it asked you if you wanted to print an EcoPrint version (all important information on one page), just the Fare Rules, or Print Everything.

GOL Print

Smart!  Especially since often when you print your itinerary you end up printing one page of useful info and then four pages of fine-print terms and conditions that no one reads … but which you invariably get upset over at the airport when checking in.

For a LCC I have to say that GOL’s website is one of the most efficient (and least annoying) that I’ve seen till now.

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