Cashless Cabins

[zig]

Australian airline credit card fees | Tiger, Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Blue

They made great efforts to steer us away from using credit cards but now airlines are telling us plastic is fantastic. Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Delta have joined fellow US carriers American Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest in switching to "cashless cabins", with air crew no longer able to accept cash as payment for drinks and snacks on board.


They also go on to report the various cc fees charged by Australian domestic carriers.

 

[Mal]

That article is weird. It seems so disjointed and uninformed.

Already Australian airlines offer the use of Credit cards in flight for food purchases, which seems to be ignored in the article.

The summary I can work out (may contain errors!) for credit card usage:

Jetstar charge 50c transaction fee (min purch $5 / max $50 per flight) [ $10 min/$75 max Intl except NZ domestic where no cards accepted]
Virgin Blue no transaction fee (no min / max $100 per flight).
Virgin Blue/Pacific Blue flights to Denpensar and Bali are cashless.
Tiger charge 50c transaction fee (min purch $10 / max $50)

I can see the day when flights will become cashless in Australia - but the credit card landscape is a lot different than overseas and that time is still quite a time away. Visa/Mastercard/American Express need to improve and develop their "micro-payments" systems and reduce the cost of transaction for small payments.

 

[harvyk]

I flew on AA the day before it went cashless. The entire time I was being reminded by FA's that cash won't work as of tomorrow.

The big problem I had with it (apart from the fact they'd found a way to make AA an even more coughpy airline) is that given I had an aussie CC (a "debit" CC) I was going to be hit with some fairly nasty fees if I made a whole lot of $3 purchases on it OS.

I can understand they don't want to carry large amounts of cash on a plane due to the security risk, but why can't they have a voucher system in place as well (I believe CO may already have that option) so that you can pre-purchase vouchers on the ground to use during your flight. (eg "redeem this voucher for 1x meal and drink")

(Or alternatively turn back into a real full service airline and realise that handing out a $3 cookie on a 5 hour flight probably won't break the bank, especially if you included the price in your original airfare...)

 

[moa999]

Would sure be a bit easier if more Aussie banks rolled out Chip+Pin cards as well as paypass/paywave features.
Particularly Amex.

The only time I have used the paypass feature of my everydaymoney card was in the back of a New York cab!

The new Cabcharge terminals have ability to do touch and chip but this doesn't appear to have been activated anywhere

 

[Mal]

given I had an aussie CC (a "debit" CC) I was going to be hit with some fairly nasty fees if I made a whole lot of $3 purchases on it OS.

Not sure which debit card you have, but for most Australian credit cards the foreign surcharge is in the range of 5c-9c for a $US3 transaction. Not going to break anyone's travel budget hopefully. So if you are being slugged a fixed per-transaction fee. plus a conversion fee for swiping a debit CC and using the "credit" button, then I would be looking at other banking options.

I agree that they should have prepaid vouchers, or pre-paid as part of the fare type options to assist with under 18's travelling and those who don't have cards. Or, as you suggest - just bring back free cookies for all!

 

[harvyk]

Not sure which debit card you have, but for most Australian credit cards the foreign surcharge is in the range of 5c-9c for a $US3 transaction. Not going to break anyone's travel budget hopefully. So if you are being slugged a fixed per-transaction fee. plus a conversion fee for swiping a debit CC and using the "credit" button, then I would be looking at other banking options.

The card I had at the time was pretty steep when it came to OS transactions, I don't remember the rates. Your right it wasn't going to break the bank, but I have an objection in paying above and beyond the quoted price. (Yes I realise that the US is not the best choice of destination for that objection)

It not normally an issue for me as I normally don't use my cards OS (or I simply withdraw the money I need from ATM's along the way) I have it more for emergencies...

 

[fortymilliondaggers]

legal tender?

 

[11sjw]

A prepaid "Octopus" style card dispensed from vending machines for use on board might be a good solution.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

legal tender?

I'm sure this will come up at some point.... as US currency has "This ntoe is legal tender for all debts, public and private" on every note.

 

[oz_mark]

They also go on to report the various cc fees charged by Australian domestic carriers.

The MasterCard debit card option makes Tiger the only airline in Australia that offers a fee-free card payment option to passengers booking online.

Qantas offer the same option within 7 days of departure.

 

[SeaWolf]

I'm sure this will come up at some point.... as US currency has "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private" on every note.

That's true, but as there's no debt (you haven't set up a line of credit or anything, you just want to buy something straight out) there's no problem. The 'legal tender for all debts' only applies to actual debts. When making a purchase (rather than paying off a debt) the vendor can choose to only use whatever type of payment they want. AA could choose to only supply goods by bartering with fig leaves if it wanted.

In the case of credit cards the bank will pay the vendor and you'll end up with a debt to the bank, which definately has to accept cash for that debt.

 

[samh004]

You can use plastic for eftpos transactions can’t you? That’s fee-free isn’t it?