This topic started out as a question, but I finally got it resolved before posting. I thought the information might spare someone else my two days of frustration, so here is a summary of the issue, problem-solving attempts, and resolution.
I have booked a number of flights and hotels in Europe, England, and Republic of Ireland this month with my Canadian credit card with no issues. Only Ryan Air resisted my attempts to buy their services from overseas. The error message I got on each of ten attempts was:
"Oh. There was a problem
As your payment was not authorised we could not complete your reservation. Please ensure that the information was correct or use a new payment to try again"
I tried the following variations to force the payment through:
- Different browsers: Safari, Opera and Chrome
- Different credit cards
- Called credit card company tech support. They confirmed the transaction had NOT been blocked by them but assured me that foreign charges would be accepted for at least the next two weeks (I'd already made a number of foreign charges with no hiccups/same card)
- Called credit card company again and tried transaction while they were on the phone. It never even made an authorization request to their system
- Did online chat with Ryan Air rep, as they have no phone number to speak to a human. He advised me to use Chrome browser, at "that is the only browser supported by the new website". Duh, not the issue.
- Finally tried payment through PayPal but using same credit card. Bingo. Payment went through just fine and the reservation is confirmed.
I have read that PayPal has worked for other forum members for other overseas purchases, so I suggest keeping this strategy in your back pocket for whenever you run across payment issues (e.g., national rail companies, hotels, other airlines). Wish I'd tried it sooner.
Speaking of bingo...I saw an article that said Ryan Air flight attendants are required to flog lottery scratch cards, perfumes, and other junk in-flight, and are given "performance coaching", aka disciplined, for not reaching sales quotas each month. Has anyone experienced this? What a crazy waste of flight attendant time.
P.S. I had to carefully avoid Dynamic Currency Conversion on both the Ryan Air website and the PayPal website. Slow down and read carefully, and snort ironically when the message asks if you're sure you want to give up the "guaranteed" conversion rate.