A longtime OMAAT reader shared a story with me regarding something that happened on a recent AirAsia flight, where he was asked for his passport after a strange credit card incident, where the lead flight attendant reportedly looked at his credit card for an exceedingly long time. He has asked for my take — I…
Continue reading: AirAsia Crew Demands Passport Inflight After Odd Credit Card Incident
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What the hell is a "JP"? And who refers it to that without saying what it is? The whole thing sounds sus.
If contactless doesn’t work, you can still insert in the reader and enter your PIN.
At no point should anyone ever write a card number down as it’s not PCI DSS ( payment card industry data security standard ) compliant. If a business ever wants to copy your card or write the number down, it’s absolutely unlawful.
Most new cards seem to now have the number on the rear.
Possibly JP Morgan. It’s not really relevant though. The issue is that it was a debit or credit card. The process is identical
Indonesia and Malaysia have absurdly high credit card skimming fraud.
I think FA is just doing loss prevention.
The passport request itself does not strike me as suspicious.
It is entirely consistent with a purser wanting to document an incident after being accused of mishandling a payment card.
I think the reference to "JP" may be saying it was a Japan-issued credit card which would likely be unfamiliar to the crew.
Unacceptable and totally uncalled for. I do not disseminate government issued ID to unknown parties. Shocking and VERY concerning. Is the company involved in under the table backwoods deals or something?
It an FA asks for your passport you give it. If she tells you she is making coffee you don't tell her to check the video. While I agree it sounds odd, it also sounds like there may have been a fair bit of attitude.
Asian cabin crews are not abusive power hungry hide behind union unaccountable authoritarian like in America.
Eskimo (real or impersonator)...My dude, US-based FAs and their unions (if applicable) are not authoritarian. That's absurd. Sure, maybe you treat them like sh*t, and hopefully they treat you how you treat others. Be sure to tell them how you really feel before meal service!
I see this happening more at check in, where, if the agent deems anything "unusual" about your request/situation, they will take a picture of your passport and itinerary with what appears to be their personal phone. I think they do it in case something goes wrong and they have to explain their account of the "incident" in question. When I say "unusual," I mean things that I would imagine are happening everyday in their line of work, like a passenger needing to be un-checked in from their flight by the operating carrier, so the ticketing carrier can re-take control of the ticket to rebook the passenger. Or, a passenger traveling on separate tickets wanting their check in luggage to be tagged all the way to the final destination. While I find it very unsettling that someone has taken down my personal information on their personal device without my consent, it is probably because they are afraid they will get in trouble --not that that justifies their behavior.
In this instance though, I can't imagine flight attendants are handling complex rebookings or through checking bags on their devices. If an onboard payment does not go through (on a U.S. carrier), I would imagine the flight attendant would just say "don't worry about it" and move on to the next passenger (as has been my experience many times). There is probably less leeway for flight attendants to do this on LCCs and in countries where the rules must always be followed. I think the paranoia of getting in trouble for a failed card transaction may have motivated the flight attendant into taking down as much information as possible, though the stakes seem much lower here and there's a good chance the transaction didn't go through because the payment device wasn't able to connect to to the system.
Needless diversion happens only in America.
A level 1 threat will be identified as a level 3 but handled like a level 4.
Only in America.
I treat FA and all other frontline employees with utmost respect.
Sadly many times, the respect is not mutual. And due to the nature of being an authoritarian and unaccountable, I can't safely and freely voice my feedbacks.
I don't want other passengers to waste time or inconvenience because the pilots decided to divert by believing only one side of the story.
Just like calling out some leaders. It's a no win.
First of all, what is a JP?
The second and third paragraphs are borderline indecipherable, but from what I gather the F/A took the passenger's card elsewhere (into the galley?) and the passenger responded by accusing the F/A of copying the numbers. Strikes me as an unnecessary escalation to assume such bad faith after a decline.
At this point the F/A is probably on the defensive having been accused of skimming (plus the "you weren't making coffee" comment is pretty snarky), so was probably trying to protect herself from further accusations by documenting the situation with the passenger's details.
Frankly this sounds entirely self-inflicted on the passenger's part.
Anyone who refers to their Chase card as their “JP” is automatically a suspicious person full of themselves to me.
Wouldn't that just be Chase? Who calls it a "JP Card"? Even the JP Morgan Reserve isn't just referred to as a "JP Card." I think OP's description is shady.
Yet nobody writes Ben and simply "I used my JP Card" under either of those scenarios.
They CHARGE for a soda? What next, the Lav?!?!!? The name on the Credit card didn't match the PNR?
Eskimo is correct , which is why I always address FAs as "Oh Person , if so" .
Lucky, FYI…
“Japan quintuples visa fees in first price hike since 1978.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8d5e5e805o
Air Asia only accept cash or Credit Card for on board payments.
They only accept MasterCard or Visa but can accept conversions for your local currency.
I ran into this issue last year between HKG and KUL (I wanted to try their famous food and so picked them over MH) where I had a Debit card with MasterCard (not accepted) and an American Express Credit Card (also not accepted).
I'd used up all of my MYR expecting to not need it, though they did take a £20 note and provide change... Once the whole cabin had ordered as it was a while until they had enough cash. They were really confused at the concept that I didn't have smaller denominations mind..
I’ve only flown internationally a dozen or so times, but it strikes me as odd to have to relinquish a passport for any reason. Yes to real authorities on the ground but not to an FA midflight. Ben, that might be a good discussion topic on its own. What am I missing here?
"Yet nobody writes Ben..."
You have no way to know this unless you read all of Ben's email.
When OP wrote JP card the reference may be the JP bank card issued by Japan Post Bank which is known as Yūcho Ginkō in Japanese. These cards can come in Visa, MasterCard or JCB.
Sorry am I missing something here? Because the crew of a foreign budget carrier took over 'one minute' to look at and process a card they hadn't seen before, and the card was declined, the passenger accuses them of lying and attempting to commit credit card fraud?
And then he is surprised when they ask him for ID? I think the passport request by the FA was unusual for sure, but honestly sounds like this passenger was acting quite aggressive and paranoid, and escalating things rapidly. The crew probably panicked. Did he watch them writing down his card number (it doesn't seem like it in the quoted message). Was the card ever out of his sight? Seems entirely self-inflicted...
I would have expected most people's first reaction would have been more like "oh there's a problem with this card so you have another" rather than obsess over the card and then ask for id. If the 2nd cc is also problematic or name doesn't match then yeah, some id would be reasonable. So yeah that would seem suspicious. However as done have said it sounds like they're was some attitude on either side not being mentioned so maybe it was just that.
It is AirAsia. They are a pathetic unsafe airline with seriously underpaid flight attendants and pilots started and run by a incompetent money grubbing fool.
I have no idea why people not from southeast Asia think they are a viable airline to fly. Maybe because of the name AirAsia. Sounds like the airline of Asia just like American Airlines sounds like the airline of America.
@R.Lopaka and KV Air Asia is an LCC. They do charge for beverages including bottled water. They do not have complimentary meals, snacks or drinks. They charge for everything extra beyond your standard ticket. It is a no frills airline.
@Kerry Have you ever encountered a flight attendant or any sales employee looking at your credit or debit card for a whole minute? Whether domestically or internationally they just simply tap, insert or swipe the card. Even if they do need to take a look at it it would not take a full minute and even then they may ask you a question such as if it is a local or foreign credit card or what type of card it is. Simply looking at the card without asking any questions about it or attempting to swipe it during that minute would make the OP feel a bit anxious or perplexed by it. It may have been declined for a number of reasons such as insufficient funds or because it was swiped internationally it was declined for security reasons in order to prevent fraud and he probably did not inform the bank ahead of time of his traveling plans.
I had 3 flights cancelled by AirAsia recently. Flew HongKong express instead and bought the Max fare and ordered food ahead of time and it was quite pleasurable.
How many times will it take for you to learn not to take unverified, biased first person accounts of events at face value? The events as described almost certainly did not happen. This person is paranoid and overly aggressive, even in his biased telling of events. It was probably 10-20 seconds while FA was juggling other requests. In the middle of a plane is not exactly where one would discretely copy CC info, and if they had rainman memorization ability they wouldn't be a FA.
I don't know why you amplify stupid shit like this and give it unearned credibility.
I have been told on an AirAsia flight that they do not accept debit cards. They also do not accept credit cards without tap function. So I had the strange experience where my credit card got rejected due to not having the tap function and my debit with tap function was rejected for not being a credit card. So I had to go thirsty on a 4 hour flight. Weirdest part is that I had recently, prior to that experience, paid for F&B on AirAsia with a debit card. So it works in their system, but seems to be against their policy. That might explain why they are checking for so long on what the article calls a niche card. In general my impression is that AirAsia staff are under paid and poorly trained. It seems that they focus more on the crews looks than their competences. I try to avoid that airline and I would encourage all other travelers to do the same. I generally only use AirAsia, if there are no other options for that route.
My experience has been that they don't have well trained crew. I was told off for eating a muffin onboard that I brought with me. Meanwhile the infant sitting on the mother's lap in the row in front wouldn't wear a seatbelt for takeoff and the FA just shrugged and walked away when the parent said the child would cry if made to wear a seatbelt. So they seem to have odd priorities.
I previously worked as an FA for a major Euro carrier and they implemented 'exceptional' procedures when selling inflight products from Duty Free on flights to one particular country.
This was not a knee-jerk reaction, it was based on the data the airline was obviously able to narrow down route by route. On flights to city in this particular country fraudulent credit cards and cash (we took cash in various currencies and obviously didn't know what a 'fake' random currency might look like) were being used 220% more often than the next highest route for inflight sales fraud.
One of the mitigation was that on routes to this country passengers had to present both their credit card and passport.
Wow this long time reader needs more empathy and understanding instead of suspecting everything in life, otherwise very likely s/he would end up having a cancer or serious illness. First the reader needs to understand why s/he feels suspicious in this case, where this urge is coming from. Certainly not the cabin crew or his scenario, it is because of his/her past experience and trauma