Fuel Cards

[SammySu]

Ok, without having to have a metre long fold out wallet card holder, which fuel cards do you carry, and which are invaluable and which are never used?
Think I need a larger selection and not sure what to go for....
Europe based.

[what next]

Hello!

We have seven or eight or nine of them onboard every aircraft. My preferred card however is "pre ordered", "pre arranged" or "on contract" which means no card at all but payment on invoice. Saves a lot of time, usually the refueller will be there to meet you right after landing and minimum paperwork will be required. It is possible almost everywhere but requires a little extra effort from the operations department...

Of the cards, the ones most often used must be BP and Shell, followed by Petrofer (mainly Spain) and AV Card. From the other ones I don't even remember the names - this is how often I need to pull them. That is mainly for (central) Europe, no idea about the rest of the world.

Regards
max

[Opsbeatch]

Sammy,

Always carry an AirBP card for AirBP only locations, that way you get the card rate. Be wary though, check the prices from the reseller cards/accounts first as they can sometimes be cheaper than AirBP direct due to volumes.
As for the Shell card, this only works well if you have an agreed rate with Shell at each location, otherwise it's rack rate which is not cheap.

If you need any advice or are in the London area at all I'd be more than willing to talk to you about it over a frosty one!

Don't make the mistake of going somewhere without checking the fuel price first. Know your first, second and third preferred fueller and be prepared to argue with the fuel truck drivers as handlers don't always do their job.

Finally, resellers usually have more than one supplier at one location meaning you would get more than one rate. Make sure you use the right one ;)

OB

[safelife]

And know the prices the providers charge you. Even in Absurdistan the fueller knows which one gives him the best deal.
If you show him all your cards he will pick the one which will cost you the most probably.
Cards from fuel companies like AirBP are in general more cost efficient than those from general service providers as MultiService and the like.

[S-Works]

UVAir and BP. Accepted everywhere I have ever been. Assuming you are only talking Jetfuel?

[DutchDutch]

I imagine that there are different fuel cards available to different parts of the world, in the US you also have (in addition to the ones written above) Colt and MS.

Colt offers great rates on many locations.

MS (multi service), is basically not a fuel card but for all other expenses like a lavatory service, parking, hangar etc. However it is possible to buy fuel with the MS but as you can imagine they don't offer good rates.

Hope this helps!:ok:

[donPablo]

UVair - spoken and pronounced by every accent and languge

Backed by AirBP You rule the world...

Though sometimes some AVcard may help from WFS usually requires pre-order.

[First.officer]

With maybe one or two exceptions in certain locations around the globe, while using the main players on the card front, you pay through the nose for the covenience......if you utilise the resources of a fuel shopping outfit, you get the benefit of cheaper (fuel) prices which on a bigger aircraft will certainly save £000's over time very quickly. And same service levels as if using a card, or better, surely a "no-brainer" ?.

F/o

[SammySu]

Many thanks for all the replies so far.

[Trim Stab]

I second the option of using a decent fuel supply service. The service pays for itself quickly because you are always informed which is the cheapest fuel provider at any stopover and, more importantly how the price compares to the next stopover. You can thus take a decision on whether you wish to uplift minimum or maximum fuel for the upcoming leg.

We actually refine the decision-making process with a small smartphone spreadsheet which takes into account additional fuel burn for uplifting any additional tanking fuel.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Multiservice & Shell.

G