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AIR BP only airports

You will need Total Card at LeTouquet (for cheaper avgas) but you would not need to refuel at L2K I suppose :)

Last Edited by Ibra at 07 Oct 08:23
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

I have never needed the TOTAL card in France, but then – with rare exceptions such as Quessant – in France I fly only to airports with customs/immigration.

What I have seen quite a lot is that with AIR BP you can use it at the machine while a credit card option is available but is a lot more complicated. However this doesn’t apply in the “new GA” countries such as Slovenia and Croatia, where they take credit cards.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

SD,

the rule is to never ask for fuelling assistance when you have a way to do self-fuelling /paying.

  • no waiting
  • no extra fees
  • no mess from incompetent fuelling

That‘s why it remains mandatory to have both TOTAL and BP when flying in France.

…Even if there is now a very noticeable trend across France to find more and more normal credit card self serve machines and less and less Carnet only machines.

Last Edited by boscomantico at 06 Oct 12:48
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Going back many years, the frequently given reason for having the AIR BP card was to avoid pricing scams which were operated in certain countries. With AIR BP, the price is determined by AIR BP and not by the airport so they can’t scam you.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Beware. The VAC for Orleans St Denis de l’Hotel states:

Carburant / Fuel : 100LL, JET A1
H24 uniquement Carte BP / H24 only BP card.
Autre moyen paiement (CB, Espèces) HOR ATS ou PPR 24 HR.
Other means of payment (Credit card, cash) ATS SKED or PPR 24 HR.

My only reason to stop there earlier this year was because it was exactly half way to my destination and so the best place to get fuel. As such I called to double check I would be able to get Avgas and pay with a credit card during ATC hrs as I dont have a AirBP card and I was assure this would be OK. So we stop over and I tell ATC I need Fuel but dont have a Air BP card. So a guy comes out and slots a card in the machine, says " Et voila", motions to me to fuel and he then stands there looking bored while I hook up the static line, get out the hose, fuel & put everything back – doesnt lift a finger to help.

I then go to pay up in his little office and discover that Im being charged a “fuel handling fee” of 25 Euros…. Very unimpressed…

Regards, SD..

EHTE went from “pay at the tower (only)” (cash/credit card) to “Air BP automaton”. Having the Air BP card, I just used it, but it may still be possible to pay at the tower. Didn’t check.

ELLX

LOWI was cash only last year.

always learning
LO__, Austria

Revisiting this topic 4 years later, is there any change? Are there still airports where AIR BP is the way to pay – or the only convenient way to pay?

IOW, is the AIR BP card still worth having, compared to a normal credit card?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Pamplona LEPP is another AIR BP or CASH only airport.

Except the fuel guy didn’t understand the 2 words “AIR BP” (spoken twice) so I had to find €450 in cash.

I bet this catches out a lot of pilots. There is a cash machine inside the terminal…

What I don’t get is why would an airport allow such bad payment options. It makes no business sense. The answer must be

  • airport management stupidity / arrogance
  • AIR BP offering some sort of financial inducement in return for a monopoly position on payments (I am sure TOTAL do the same where they are)

If you run any kind of business you will accept

  • cash
  • all credit cards (every CC merchant facility does all except possibly AMEX)

and anything else is just dumb. When my business started accepting credit cards c. 1997 our sales went up 20-30% overnight. And we are B2B, not even retail! Airports get away with this attitude because after you landed, they have you by the balls.

Well, they think they have. In reality you won’t go there again unless you have to because every little bit of hassle is a disincentive and gradually the traffic level will go down and down. The result?

Also the above mentioned option of collecting a ticket at the office (or some variation of that) is not much good. The whole point of a self service pump is that you taxi to it, fill up, and taxi to parking. And you can do it even if the office is closed. Not

  • taxi to it
  • walk around the airport looking for somebody who can tell you how to use it because all the instructions are in German or French or Spanish only
  • put in your fuel card (which of course you have, haven’t you )
  • fill up
  • walk around the airport again looking for somebody who can tell you how to finish off because all the instructions are in German or French or Spanish only
  • go back to the office to pay
  • go back to your plane and park it, while the locals are cursing yet another stupid foreigner who dares visit their country

The answer must be

  • airport management stupidity / arrogance
  • AIR BP offering some sort of financial inducement in return for a monopoly position on payments

If you run any kind of business you will accept

  • cash
  • all credit cards (every CC merchant facility does all except possibly AMEX)

and anything else is just dumb. (Sometimes not cash because of probable theft). When my business started accepting credit cards c. 1997 (before that it was bank transfer of cheque) our sales went up 20-30% overnight. And we are B2B, not even retail! Airports get away with this attitude because after you landed, they have you by the balls.

Well, they think they have. In reality you won’t go there again unless you have to because every little bit of hassle is a disincentive and gradually the traffic level will go down and down.

Pamplona would be nice for a fly-in, but I don’t know how many would turn up because of the limited payment options.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

The most strange is that at BP Airports EDDH and LOWI you only can pay cash or with the BP Card no VISA.

EDAZ
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