Aviation fuel cards

Thanks Philipp, that‘s what I have had in mind too.

That’s interesting. I have applied for a Shell Carnet, but it hasn’t turned up yet. That was frustrating as I was in Stuttgart on Tuesday and the only Avgas supplier was Shell and I was cursing them for not having sent it yet.

The driver asked if I had one, so I do not understand if they no longer exist.

I will chase it, but I guess that if it no longer exists it would explain why it hasn’t turned up yet!

For Jet A1 Uvair is good, but we have better prices with Jetex…

Romain

Is there any evidence that a fuel card gives you a lower price than a normal credit card, IF the fuel seller accepts credit cards?

Of course the TOTAL card gives you a lower price (than the airport bowser) but those pumps have been rigged to not take anything else. I wonder why that was done. Was it to keep the credit card processing fee in TOTAL’s pocket, and prevent the use of a credit card which would cost TOTAL another 1-2%? I cannot understand why one would install a pump – an expensive installation, in both initial and ongoing costs – and then not enable it to reduce the personal wealth of the maximum possible number of customers Same goes for the AIR BP self service pumps too; they don’t take credit or debit cards either. There must be some weird reasons for this.

The other reason given for fuel cards is that it protects you from locally run scams/ripoffs but I would think that is rare in Europe especially N Europe.

Simply that the price you get charged is often not visible on the fuel receipt. IME, many fuel receipts don’t show the price per litre. This makes it possible to get home and weeks or months later you see a credit card charge which is different from what you expected. Never happened to me but I have heard of it many times especially from the 3rd World. Also you are not in a position to argue at that point. I recall one fillup, in 2016, when it was raining so heavily that the fuel receipt dissolved in my hands.

Whereas with e.g. AIR BP the price is set centrally at their office and IIRC there is even a way to check it online. So even if you filled up at Calcutta, the price will still be known.

Is it common with the AirBP, that it takes so long to get the plastic card? Since 2 month I have the log in details and activated my account, but since nothing happened.

Check the AIR BP thread.

I have got three AirBP cards in the last few months and none has taken very long. I find it helpful to talk to Suzanne, the Account Manager, who is very nice and pushes things through.

+1 for Suzanne. Very helpful. For me the AirBP card gives me back control. Where self serve pumps are available, i can land, taxi to the pump and fuel without having to wait. Then when we come to depart a couple of days later, being fuelled,time planning is a lot easier.