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AIR BP only airports

I have come across a number of these lately e.g.

Bastia
Zell am See
Pamplona
Annecy
……

There is no normal card option although the French ones may in some cases accept TOTAL also.

I wonder how BP is achieving this.

The stupid thing is that in every case you need local help because the menus are in the local language. The card identifies your language but somehow the installations break this.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Where is the problem?

There are basically two types of BP stations: one is where you can use the Air BP card and get fuel for yourself, the other is where there is no card machine, and you need an operator.

Yes, the BP card terminals are sometimes a diffifult to work with, but then you always have the option to call an operator (and pay by other means as well). So, in the end, you are never worse off than at any traditional fuel station.

Pretty definitely, Air BP stations do not accept a Total card…

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Peter wrote:

Zell am See

They accept all credit cards.

Not from what I could see. Unless there is a separate option to pay at the office despite having used the self service pump.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I LOWZ I regularly pay with MasterCard or VISA

Of course, you get the card from the office, put it in the pump and the pay at the office. That’s how everybody does it there.

Peter wrote:

Not from what I could see. Unless there is a separate option to pay at the office despite having used the self service pump

Yes there is, not only at Zell. Quite a few self service pumps work that way, you take the card or key or whatever at the office, fuel, bring back the card and pay together with landing fees e.t.c. using the payment method of your choice.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

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

EDAZ

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

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
17 Posts
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