đŸ›© Monzo on Aircraft

Monzo Chat Travelling with Monzo
1

My card was refused on a Thomas Cook Aircraft, for on board snack. They accepted my Barclays debit card. They seemed confused by the colour. Or don’t they accept pre-loaded cards?

2

We had exactly the same trouble. Had to use the credit card in the end.

3

Thomas cook like a lot of airlines are restrictive.
They don’t take Amex, prepaid cards or any cards that are expiring in the same month you are flying.
Basically they only take cards that can perform offline transactions.

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4

My card worked fine on Monarch Airlines, came through as Alpha Group a few days later.

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5

Danny think you were lucky as in Monarch’s T&Cs in their inflight magazine they say ‘we do not accept any type of prepaid cards or cash passport displaying the MasterCard debit symbol’.

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6

I don’t read them things lol

They just used the chip and pin and it worked.

7

I’m not a reader of them normally. Just had previous experience with Thomsons, Monarch, Thomas cook and a few others that haven’t taken other prepaid cards in past.
Most will use chip and pin but it’s classed as an off line transaction as at 38000ft POS doesn’t work that well.
I’m flying with Thomas Cook and won’t even try with my Monzo or Starling card as they are particularly funny about cards. I do remember having to show my passport once when buying something as it was over £100.

8

I’ve used Monzo on both Ryanair and Easyjet with no issues.

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9

I have however had one issue with another bank’s card on Ryanair. Make it clear to them if you want to be charged in GBP or EUR as while they may ask they do sometimes assume and you may wish to avoid any currency exchange even if it is at Monzo’s Mastercard rate.

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10

Fun fact for you, airlines (and some train companies) have a special exemption to charge cards differently to normal merchants. This means that even cards which are ‘online only’ should work on planes. It’s why stuff like this can happen http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/29/mid-air-credit-card-scammers-given-suspended-jail-sentences/

And while we’re on the subject of transactions on planes, it’s really important to remember that you won’t get live spending notifications. In fact, your card can be charged up to six months after the flight :scream: Some airlines are worse at this than others, but if you see a charge on your Monzo from an airline, it could well be that burnt tasting coffee from several months ago :coffee:

7 Likes
11

Thanks for your post. Whilst I understand what you’re saying it is several chartered airlines policy not to accept offline / prepaid cards. Thomas cook used to refuse my nationwide basic current account card as this needed online authorisation.

12

Given the fact that you’re disagreeing with a bank knowledge base & member of the support team who sees hundreds of these transactions, I think it’s fair to ask what your source is for that information?

Perhaps this ‘policy’ has changed
?

13

@alexs please take a look at monarch, Thomas cook and Thomsons literature they produce on their aircraft that clearly states exactly what I have posted.

See below

14

Mine was charged fine on Ryanair and Monarch and I asked them to charge me in EUR just in case they gave me a horrible conversion, since the menu was in EUR.

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15

Doesn’t work on Thompson I tried using prepaid card 3 weeks ago and will try the debit card when I fly again in 3 weeks time

16

Was denied use of it on EasyJet today. Was told they didn’t accept prepay cards, asked them “have you /tried/ it?”, because he just had what appeared to be a regular contactless terminal, was told that he was outright not allowed to accept them.

17

Interesting
We’re off to Spain on Saturday. EasyJet. I’ll try Monzo again!
Chris

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18

Monzo CA :monzo: worked on Monarch :smiley: The flight attendant looked at my card in awe for what felt like minutes
 But she put in the reader at about 40k feet and the transaction worked :wink: This was around 23:45 on Friday and the transaction came through at 1am today. So a few days but it worked :slight_smile:

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19

Just a quickie, has anyone had any issues with using new debit card on flights, I know they didn’t accept when pre paid, has that now changed or will I have to keep my Barclays card active for now

20

I used my CA card on my flight from London to San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, all was fine :slight_smile: