Credit card-style room keys

[danmancs]

My Dad forwarded me that email just a few weeks ago, and my gut instinct was to tell him he was a moron for forwarding it on and that it was a load of nonsense. I can feel fully justified that I did so now, thanks!

 

[lovetravellingoz]

While the OP has been debunked, I have just checked in to my hotel in Chartres, France and receiveda credit card key BUT not witha magnetic stripe but with a chip like the newer credit cards have.

 

[Mal]

I think this is most of the article:

How to avoid travel mistakes | News.com.au

However, strangely enough, the online version has no reference to credit card encoding on hotel keys ... Hmm. But then again, it might have been on the opposite side of the page in a different article. Does someone still have Sunday's paper and can check?

Here is the other comment I had big issues with in the article:

"One of my clients booked a flight online in 2010 when he wanted to travel in 2009," Spencer says. "So, on turning up to the airport, he found he was at check-in a year before he had booked and the flight was full."

Right. So which airline was this??? Can I really book a ticket today for 365+1 ++ days with any airline? If I can, I've never seen it. Another tall tale perhaps?

 

[markis10]

I think this is most of the article:

How to avoid travel mistakes | News.com.au

However, strangely enough, the online version has no reference to credit card encoding on hotel keys ... Hmm. But then again, it might have been on the opposite side of the page in a different article. Does someone still have Sunday's paper and can check?

Here is the other comment I had big issues with in the article:



Right. So which airline was this??? Can I really book a ticket today for 365+1 ++ days with any airline? If I can, I've never seen it. Another tall tale perhaps?

I read that as well and thought it was odd, I have once booked a hotel in HKG for the wrong year (SPG) but never been able to get more than a year out of a GDS for an airline.

 

[browski]

Gee, I thought this was going to be a thread discussing "how useless those credit-card style keys are".
I despise them. I have lost count of the amount of times I have reached my hotel room only to find the magnetic strip no longer functioning - usually when there is an extreme and imminent call from nature.

I now request 3 of these suckers at check-in; and ensure they have their expiry set to the late check-out time, even if I do not require one.

 

[Grooba]

... I have lost count of the amount of times I have reached my hotel room only to find the magnetic strip no longer functioning - usually when there is an extreme and imminent call from nature. ...

RFID cards eliminate this problem.

 

[straitman]

RFID cards eliminate this problem.

OK. I'll ask :?:

What are RFID cards :?:

 

[Mal]

What are RFID cards :?:

Cards with chips in them, and an integrated antenna so that you only have to press it against the lock, or wave it close to the lock. Because they don't rely on a magnetic strip, there's no issues with them getting erased.

Think Oyster/Octopus/Go/Myki type transit cards, or those toll road payment devices (same concept, much stronger antenna etc )

Also plenty of corporates (and apartments) use RFID cards for security access to buildings/floors etc.

 

[straitman]

Cards with chips in them, and an integrated antenna so that you only have to press it against the lock, or wave it close to the lock. Because they don't rely on a magnetic strip, there's no issues with them getting erased.

Think Oyster/Octopus/Go/Myki type transit cards, or those toll road payment devices (same concept, much stronger antenna etc )

Also plenty of corporates (and apartments) use RFID cards for security access to buildings/floors etc.

Ta.

Though if Myki use it then I am concerned :!:

 

[RB]

Interesting to note the Doc Holiday page in the travel section of the Sunday Telegraph today. The journo has added a note at the end to say some readers have questioned whether it( embedding information) ever happened etc.
I certainly would never be placing much credence in information from this news section. Always appears to be out of date & late on the pick-up.

 

[Globaltraveller]

If this is the case why dont the hotelliers just programme their doors to accept your Credit Card as the door key ... I bet a lot less of them would get lost if they did

Erasing the card is easy - everytime I stay in a hotel my key stops working at some point and everytime the recepionists say its because ive kept it in the same hip case as my mobile phone !!!

 

[kiwi2768]

A similar thing happened to a former work colleague. She put her swipe card (to open the security gate) in her purse and when she went to the ATM to get money her debit card wouldn't work.

 

[browski]

A similar thing happened to a former work colleague. She put her swipe card (to open the security gate) in her purse and when she went to the ATM to get money her debit card wouldn't work.

With respect, I think that would be a User error......otherwise known in the industry as an 1D.10T issue