Recently flown to the USA with TUI. Tried to use my Monzo card on board and it wouldn’t go through on their machine. They said they don’t accept Monzo, Revolut or any prepaid debit cards. I understand that Monzo is a real bank I use them as my main account for all other services. I wonder why on board a lot of aircraft they see it as a prepaid card? (with the exception of Ryanair which seems to take money for anything 
)
Also had issues in the past with Wizzair, BA and JET2
There is no issue. It will either be the machine or your account/card as they cannot block specific banks like that.
It’s a legacy issue concerning offline transactions. Suggest you use ApplePay or something and don’t tell them you’re using Monzo. It’ll work in the same way as any other bank.
For what it’s worth I’ve used Monzo many times on BA and had no issues.
It won’t work because there’s no connection, same for all cards.
Monzo will work, just don’t tell them it’s Monzo.
Most cards (including Monzo) are offline-enabled ie you can make transactions when there’s no connection and they’ll be presented once the terminal comes online (eg airplanes or TfL). So this sentence, as it stands, is incorrect.
This is the case so long as they haven’t blocked the BIN (if they can do that).
It’s the perception that Monzo are not a “real bank” and that there are higher rates of fraud at the “not real banks” that will haunt Monzo for a very long time. In theory merchants aren’t allowed to discriminate between MasterCard and MasterCard, but in practice good luck getting MC to enforce this requirement.
I’ve also been told this. So somewhere within TUI they must have been told to say this, or it has been at one point and the message has stuck - perhaps there were issues in pre-paid days. I’ve got around this by saying well it’s what I have (at the time) and they just used it. Worked and went through fine on numerous occasions.
They’ll say they can’t take it, you say you only have that and they’ll take it.
My partner and I had issues with Monzo a couple of times, I believe last year, where the transaction would not go through when we used Monzo. But it hasn’t happened recently. So there may be an issue here.
I’m flying with TUI on Sunday (to Cancun 
) so I’ll check this out 
Enjoy your holiday!
My card on Jet2 did not work as a tap and pay but did work when inserted.
There’s a contact on this page where you can report problems like this:
The card should be accepted everywhere Mastercard is.
Just to clarify, did you try and it didn’t go through or did they see the card in your hand and say no before you could try?
Great. That earworm is going to be stuck in my head all day now.
I’m flying with TUI on Sunday (to Turkey ) I’ll wave to you and will also test my Monzo card
Have a great time, we can compare notes when we’re back
Claim the flights as a business expense … in field testing 
Hello to clarify. I tried it contactless and the machine rejected it. Then the crew member saw the card and said we don’t take Monzo
99% sure they can’t single out a single bank like that. They either accept MC consumer debit cards or they don’t.
That is a high level of percentage!
The BIN does make it clear which bank / issuer the card is from. There’s no technical reason they can’t decline some BINs and not others.
They definitely shouldn’t, if that’s what you mean.
I’d want someone to confirm but I’m (still 99% sure 
) they’d have to accept all MC consumer debit cards. If they wanted to block Monzo, they’d have to block NatWest, RBS etc.
i.e. they can’t discriminate against a BIN (they can against a product - consumer vs business… debit vs prepaid vs credit etc)
Only other reason I can think of it not working is the terminal itself hasn’t been updated in years … which is likely.
Your card should work anywhere that Mastercard’s accepted
I’ll try a mix when i go.
I’ll likely use contactless on my joint account, then if it doesn’t work and they say that they dont accept Monzo, I’ll whip out my 
personal card for chip and PIN as i doubt they’ll notice.
Last attempt would then be Google Pay.
I imagine it was just some contactless glitch and then they recited some outdated knowledge 
All the flights I’ve been on this year, have announced that Mastercard has to be done via Chip & PIN. Visa can do contactless and Apple Pay. No idea how accurate that is but it’s been the same announcement on every flight (Ryanair) and I’ve been on 8.