Qantas Cash not accepted on board QF (or JQ) flights

[Mattg]

I don't seem to recall Qantas Cash being accepted as a form of payment on Jetstar flights, but I thought that surely it could be used to make a purchase on a Qantas flight?

I bought some duty-free on a recent QF int'l flight. Gave the FA my Qantas Cash card to pay. At first he didn't even realise that the FF card doubled up as a payment card. Then when he tried to process a payment with it, it didn't work.

Surely Qantas should be able to accept payments with its own card?

 

[travelislife]

I am pretty sure it is because it is a debit card. I could be wrong but I am pretty sure when you buy things in the air by credit card they don't actually ping back to the bank. So your credit limit isn't actually checked. Rather the transaction is done on trust and then finalised on the ground. Thus they don't accept debit cards, only credit cards.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

One of my tries was at one of the most $$$ hotel at AKL airport, namely Novotel AKL Airport.
You guessed it, yep, card got denied after 2 tries. It was a QCC PS card, but at the time, I also had a QCC SG card, not activate.
Lucky I had another card which was processed, not QCC.
Try your QCC at a normal outlet when you get back or if already back, try it.
Hopefully its just that QF flight that it didn't work.
My that card (QCC PS) never worked again, and I had to use a secondary card, QCC SG which I had at my disposal and just had to activate it.
#2 has a good point tho.

 

[Mattg]

One of my tries was at one of the most $$$ hotel at AKL airport, namely Novotel AKL Airport.
You guessed it, yep, card got denied after 2 tries. It was a QCC PS card, but at the time, I also had a QCC SG card, not activate.
Lucky I had another card which was processed, not QCC.
Try your QCC at a normal outlet when you get back or if already back, try it.
Hopefully its just that QF flight that it didn't work.
My that card (QCC PS) never worked again, and I had to use a secondary card, QCC SG which I had at my disposal and just had to activate it.
#2 has a good point tho.

The card has been working fine on the ground. I guess the fact that it's a debit card must be the problem, as per travelislife's post.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Pre-Pay credit cards ( which the Qantas Cash card is) are frequently not accepted in hotels for pre-authorisation against Room damages, nor against Car Hire transactions, as they are effectively a debit card.
Although I would agree as a Qantas branded Card, one would think it would be accepted onboard QF flights as a valid form of payment.

 

[eminere]

I am pretty sure it is because it is a debit card. I could be wrong but I am pretty sure when you buy things in the air by credit card they don't actually ping back to the bank. So your credit limit isn't actually checked. Rather the transaction is done on trust and then finalised on the ground. Thus they don't accept debit cards, only credit cards.

That's right. The fact that you can't use Qantas Cash for inflight purchases is indicated in the FAQs.

 

[samh004]

Interesting to know, though probably wouldn't use the card onboard anyway.

Lucky I have an emergency AMEX card.