Small Change

[Mr Optimistic]

Just had a few goes on EZY to Glasgow. One hour flight but still two trolleys flogging refreshments and stuff. Is it really necessary for 1 hour or is it the profit motive ? Also, the usual pleas for the right change. Any chance they might introduce a cashless system ? All seems a very hurried palaver and can't see why they bother.

[davidjohnson6]

Easyjet have a legal obligation to have cabin crew in the aircraft - minimum of 1 per 50 passengers. Of course, the cabin crew need to be paid for the duration of the flight.

While seatbelt signs are off, these cabin crew are largely free for whatever airline management want them to do - i.e. they are effectively people whose wages have already been paid. Thus getting them to flog overpriced food / drink to a captive audience incurs little extra cost. Very little of the food will expire that day - so wastage is minimal. The only real cost is flying the trolley and its culinary contents.

Do passengers really need a bacon baguette on such a short flight ? Of course not - but it's still a way to make a bit more money out of customers.

[PAXboy]

I was involved in the first introduction of paperless plastic transactions in the UK in the early 1980s so can answer this.


Cashless systems were being talked about 40 years ago and the first steps (in the UK) were taken in 1983 with the introduction of on-line credit card authorisation. The technology existed THEN for cashless payments by plastic but it took another 25 years for it to become widely accepted.

The ability for you to use your mobile (Cell/Handy) phone as a 'wallet' or 'purse' has been talked about for (at least) 15 years. The technology is available in the UK, most widely known as the Oyster card for London Transport but Barclays and others are trialling systems. Nokia were involved at an early stage.

Introducing such major changes involve four stages:
The technology is invented. :ok:
Everyone in the supply chain argues about who will benefit the most and, thus, who should pay the most. This takes time. :rolleyes:
The general public has to get use to the idea. This can take even longer and is mostly associated with the passing of the generations. For example, many older folks still insist on having a cheque book - because it's what they know. My late father had difficulty using a mobile phone and would never have considered using it as a wallet. A good example is the E-book. Many people loves paper books and cannot imagine why anyone would want to have an E-book. Younger people (typically) are growing up learning off the screen and so an E-book reader is 'natural. :cool:
Lastly, you have to get international agreement. How long did it take for Europe wide use of your UK bank card to withdraw the cash? Consider that the UK and many places in Europe have moved to Chip-and-Pin for plastic transactions. Yet how many countries still use the multi-layer paper transaction slips? Can you get the banks of all the nationalities that might travel on EZY to agree on cashless wallets? If your bank's cashless wallet does not work with EZY and you have no cash - or they will accept no cash? :=So it will be along within the next ten years, starting with small local schemes, then national then international.

The actually technology is not the problem. :p


PS When I had finished posting this, I was reading the BBC webnews pages and found this:

BBC News - Barcelona's Mobile World Congress to have tapas-style variety (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12337672)


The punchline is the closing paragraphs.
Every Mobile World Congress has a buzzword - more often than not an acronym - and this year it is likely to be NFC - Near Field Communication. [That's what Oyster use and it means you only have to 'touch' the phone to a reader and not physically interact with it.]

NFC is the technology that allows mobile phones to be turned into payment devices, replacing credit cards, loyalty cards, travel cards and other vouchers.
"All the applications that use a physical card can one day or another be transferred onto the mobile phone," said Phillippe Vallee, from Gemalto, an NFC technology firm. Paying for tapas may be about to get a lot easier.

[Mr Optimistic]

Thanks. Was actually wondering about a limited system where you could buy the card off the airline, pre-load it, and then get x% discount over cash (as an incentive and to reduce the money leftover fears). The way it is now I sometimes think that if I turned up with a couple of fivers and a bunch of pound coins a grateful crew might award me a sandwich !

[PAXboy]

Ah, trust me to get the wrong end of the card! The problem (for EZY) is that they would have to run such a card and cash in tandem for a long time until folks knew about the card and ALL used it. Also, some pax might like to use up foreign small change on the return journey. That said, with the Euro, it's now best to keep it for the next trip.

[Mr Optimistic]

..you weren't to know how limited my ambitions were ! Sitting and watching, the whole thing looks just dumb - no problem to me but the CC were hard pressed for no good reason that I could see.

[PAXboy]

Sure they are. One of the problems for mobile kiosks on planes and trains is that items tend to use 'landside' pricing of 4.98 or 3.75 as it is known that these encourage purchasing more than 5.00 or other whole numbers. This makes change a real problem.

But if pax cannot get to the gate on time, they sure as heck ain't gonna buy a pre-loaded cash card!

[Haven't a clue]

One wonders if using your NFC enabled mobile phone to pay would require the phone to be turned on. If so, and if seen as an attractive payment method for airlines, would the vulnerable systems on board the aircraft suddenly become less vulnerable?