Travel abroad with ABSA Credit card

My husband is travelling overseas in Thailand with my son. He went into Absa before leaving to let them know he was travelling. All seemed perfect till he needed to pay for his 1st hotel accommodation and his card was declined. He hadn't even entered his pin. He is able to make cash withdrawals at ATM but cant do machine transactions. I have his phone with me and he received wrong pin entered messages and yet he can still withdraw cash from an atm. Luckily he also took some cash and can make a plan till I can get to a bank to try sort out. Makes no sense to me. Anyone else on absa experience this?