If SWA can do it, why can't we?

[jimntx]

Southwest Airlines announced that they are going cashless for onboard sales effective 09SEP. They have never accepted credit/debit cards before, and now they are going strictly plastic for onboard sales. If they can do it, why can't we?

Don't tell me that it was tried and didn't work. I know a couple of SFO f/as who bragged that they sabotaged the credit/debit only sales test. They would deliberately turn the card the wrong way so that the magnetic stripe wouldn't be read, then they told the customer that the card was not accepted. If the customer wanted to try another card, they would repeat the same actions and tell the customer, "It must be this OSR device that is bad. We've had nothing but trouble from them." They thought that if the experiment didn't work, the company would do away with the OSRs all together. They wanted to go back to cash only--"the way we have always done it."

I was also told by someone at Centerport that we can't go cashless "until we get the OSRs working on a consistent basis." How about doing something about the f/as who are deliberately sabotaging the units? In the past year, the only time I have had problems with the OSR is when the unit has been deliberately damaged--stylus pulled off the unit, battery jammed in the wrong way, etc. Or, the station had no replacement units/batteries--such as happened at DFW day before yesterday! Our headquarters hub Cabin Service told me they had no replacement units and no batteries at DFW!!!!!

The benefits to no cash far outweigh any other options--no accusing f/as of taking the money; no need to inventory anything; no deposit envelopes to deal with; no trying to find the deposit safe at outstations; no having to carry large amounts of cash around for the whole trip as an alternative to daily deposits. I'm one of those f/as who has had deposit envelopes stolen from my bag; and, since it happened in Ops in EWR while I was in the lav, it's a pretty good bet that another f/a or pilot was the guilty party.

 

[Skymess]

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There are some who sabotage the units, but as far as I am concerned, the unit needs no sabotaging because it is a piece of garbage on its own. I have had to deal with more malfunctioning units in the middle of duty free or a beverage transaction than anything else. Forget about the ones that refuse to transmit. The units I have dealt with that had the problem didn't have them due to FA's. I think AA chose the cheapest bidder again. It's a tiny little computer but it boots up as fast as an old commodore when you're trying to make a sale in the aisle.

I would love to have us go cashless just for the benefit of not having to make change but I can foresee an annoying delay in my beverage service if it's these machines we have to go cashless with.

I doubt we will anytime soon anyway because AA doesn't want to offend anyone who has no credit or turn anyone away with ANY money.

 

[AC AA LA FA]

There was no "sabotage" for the cashless SFO test.
It was doomed to fail from the start. The OSRs were then, and still are unreliable,unavailable and not user friendly to all. I still feel we need to offer passengers more choices while in flight, not less...cash stays as an option.

WN carries domestic pax point to point. We have pax from across the globe on any number of flights who dont carry compatible, or any credit/debit cards for use on board..

 

[jimntx]

There was no "sabotage" for the cashless SFO test.
It was doomed to fail from the start. The OSRs were then, and still are unreliable,unavailable and not user friendly to all.

All I know is what I was told by two SFO f/as who said that others were doing same. I agree that the units we have may not be the best. The car rental agencies have been using them for several years, and I have never had an experience of the handheld devices not working there.

A friend of mine is a f/a at Frontier and another who is a f/a at Alaska. They both have been cashless for some time, and they say that they don't have the problems with their OSRs that we seem to have.

All that being said, I have never had much problem with the OSRs. The main problem I have is getting replacement batteries for them, or when I transmit, it's the first time the unit has been transmitted in several days which is not the OSR's fault. I have f/as tell me as they get off an a/c that I'm about to get on that the OSRs are not working. I get on the a/c and they seem to be working fine, or just need a quick reboot.

You know there are only 2 airlines that are still cash only--Northwest and United; however, we are one of the few airlines that still accepts both cash and plastic. Cashless is inevitable; so, we might as well get mentally prepared for it. The f/as who are supplementing their income from the deposit envelope don't realize it, but they are the major impetus for going cashless. The company is very aware that a lot more product--both alcohol and food--is being dispensed than is being paid for.

As far as giving passengers options, remember that US Airways has started charging even for sodas, juice, water, and coffee, and they don't seem to have had that much passenger anger; moreover, when I see people use a credit/debit card to pay for a $2.00 Starbucks at the airport, I don't think going cashless is going to be that much of a problem.

As far as our "foreign" passengers...most foreign airlines have been cashless for years. It would be more likely that someone who could afford to travel to the U.S. would have a credit or debit card than they would have U.S. currency on them.

 

[FWAAA]

Couple weeks ago, at CHI Union Station baggage claim, an Australian couple was fumbling with the SmarteCarte luggage lockers, feeding it a US$5 again and again (yes, unlike airports, you can still rent a locker in train stations) and I asked if I could help. Turns out the machine wanted $4 now and the rest of the payment when they returned, and would not make change. And the change machine was broken.

So I asked them why they didn't simply use a credit card? They told me "they didn't have one."

Huh? You fly to the USA from Australia, ride a train halfway across the country, visit Chicago and you don't have a credit card? 25 years ago, that might not have surprised me. But in 2008?

I gave them ones for their fivespot so they could feed the machine $4.

If you don't have a credit card or debit card and fly on AA, it's time to consider getting one, 'cause Jim is right - cashless is the future.

 

[AC AA LA FA]

All this sounds great in "theory" but my "practical experience" leads me to beleive that going cashless at this point with our hardware, software, procedures and buy in from the rank and file would prove to be a mistake..

With adjustments to the aforementioned, I welcome to AA the new age of a cashless cabin..

 

[desertfox]

There are some who sabotage the units, but as far as I am concerned, the unit needs no sabotaging because it is a piece of garbage on its own. I have had to deal with more malfunctioning units in the middle of duty free or a beverage transaction than anything else. Forget about the ones that refuse to transmit. The units I have dealt with that had the problem didn't have them due to FA's. I think AA chose the cheapest bidder again. It's a tiny little computer but it boots up as fast as an old commodore when you're trying to make a sale in the aisle.

I would love to have us go cashless just for the benefit of not having to make change but I can foresee an annoying delay in my beverage service if it's these machines we have to go cashless with.

I doubt we will anytime soon anyway because AA doesn't want to offend anyone who has no credit or turn anyone away with ANY money.

Who makes the unit that WN uses??

 

[Barfbag]

Cash is just another excuse for some F/A to cash in on sales. I've noticed some F/A grabbing additional items from inbounds to later sell on the turns. They claim that they're don't get enough items for the trip, so they show up early and run to the rear galleys to take as much as they can cookies, sandwiches, and anything else to sell later. $ 5 here $ 10 there it adds up. Anybody watching?

CA$H, that's just an added paycheck.

 

[jimntx]

Who makes the unit that WN uses??

Don't know, but I'll try to find out the next time I commute on WN. Be aware, it's not just the unit. In fact, it may not be the unit at all. The problems, such as the unit rebooting every time you touch it, could be (and probably are) software problems.

In this day and age, computer hardware has reached a level of maturity and sophistication that hardware is not the problem unless a particular unit is a lemon. Given the same amount of memory, chip speed, disk storage, etc., there is little difference in performance between a Sony and a "Wal-Mart" computer.

The software, however, can still vary widely dependent upon whose writing it, their expertise, the time allotted to the development and testing of the software, and management's commitment to doing it right. AMR management has shown less than total commitment to anything that affects or might help the f/as. From what I've seen, the approach to software development is "We don't have time to get it right, but there will always be time to fix it later--after it's installed."

 

[upsilon]

AMR management has shown less than total commitment to anything that affects or might help the f/as. From what I've seen, the approach to software development is "We don't have time to get it right, but there will always be time to fix it later--after it's installed."

Don't knock it... Bill Gates got his billion$ with that approach!

 

[eolesen]

I don't see what's different about the OSRs and the portable units they've had in European (and Australian, ironically) restaurants for years....