Visa Claim 2012 Ticket ‘Glitch’ Fixed

Visa, story credit-card giant and official sponsor of the London 2012 Olympics, buy claim they have fixed the problem that left a huge number of fans unable to book tickets for the Games when they went on sale earlier this week.

Visa say that the “glitch” has now been fixed so that, remedy from next Monday, March 21, the website will accept ticket applications from cardholders with an expiry date of May 2011 and later.

Visa Europe apologised for the inconvenience some cardholders had experienced, releasing a statement saying: “It is important to stress again that tickets are not issued on a first-come, first-served basis and any ticket registration taking place by April 26, 2011 will have an equal chance of success in the ballot.

“From Monday, March 21, all Visa cards with an expiry date of May 2011 or later will be accepted by the London 2012 ticket application website.

“Any Visa cardholders with an April expiry date will receive a replacement card before the ticket registration deadline of April 26.

“This means that all Visa cardholders will be able to apply for tickets before the April 26 deadline.

“For those affected cardholders who do not wish to wait until Monday, there are a number of alternatives including using a Visa prepaid card.

“Visa regrets the inconvenience that some cardholders may have experienced.”

Visa has been a Worldwide Sponsor of the Olympic Games since 1986 and is the only card that can be used to pay online for the 6.6 million London 2012 Olympic tickets.

However, just a few hours into the online ticket launch, fans with Visa cards that expire before the end of August 2011 found they were unable to process their orders. Although the expiry date problem had been known about for several weeks and included on ticket information, many people were still unaware they would be unable to use their cards when they attempted to purchase seats for the Olympics and were left frustrated.

Cardholders with an April 2011 expiry date will have to wait for a replacement card to arrive before applying before the April 26 deadline because the card must be valid when payments are processed later in the year.