Cashless Acela cafe

[Bob Dylan]

So far on record the smallest credit card transaction that I have run is $0.79!

I have used a credit card at a City of Los Angeles parking meter to buy 25¢ worth of parking.

Ditto! In Austin the Meters take Credit Cards and Cash with 25 cents being the Minimum.( for 15 Minutes)

 

[dlagrua]

It sounds like the FSA's either didn't make change properly or were skimming the take. Theft in the dining cars was a problem and that has brought about changes. Now the cafes are suspect. No cash is fine with me, as I always carry a credit card.

 

[Anderson]

Keep in mind that many regional flights are operated by companies other than the mainline under contract. A few of the regionals are owned by the mainline but most are not.

A meaningless distinction for members of the traveling public.

I'm a member of the traveling public and I find the difference between mainline and regional service to be night and day. Nearly every trip I take is routed so that it utilizes mainline flights as much as possible. Cramped seats and limited service regional jets flown with overworked and undertrained staff employed by regional carriers with lax standards and poor safety records is not my idea of a good time.

Kudos to you for being an informed traveler.

I think a lot of people know the difference between a large plane and a small plane, but I suspect the vast majority neither know nor care whether the flight is technically operated by Delta/AA/United or Air Wisconsin/Chatauqua/Compass etc. The parent carriers market the flights as being their own, right up until the moment something goes wrong, in which case it's "don't blame US..."

Under gripes I have with booking systems, I wish there was a way to exclude non-major carrier codeshares from searches. It's one thing if you're looking at an Air Canada/United codeshare, but being able to eject Skywest et al from searches would be nice. I can't even kick them on ITA, and that's one of the more robust search tools out there.

 

[amamba]

Like jis I rarely use cash. I use my credit card for everything and reap the rewards and pay the balance in full each month. I can't remember the last time I even went to an atm or needed cash. I welcome the change on Acela.

 

[Triley]

Just to keep everybody informed, the program has been put on hold indefinitely.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

Just to keep everybody informed, the program has been put on hold indefinitely.

Not surprised.

 

[neroden]

Sounds like someone at the top realized that preventing customers from handing them cash was *not* the way to "run Amtrak like a business" and was not going to be good for the bottom line...

 

[Triley]

Sounds like someone at the top realized that preventing customers from handing them cash was *not* the way to "run Amtrak like a business" and was not going to be good for the bottom line...

With this response I would like to circle the topic back around to where it was mentioned that pretty much all the mainline airlines, who are run like businesses, do this. Not that I agree it is the best decision anyway.

From the inside I can tell you that the vast majority of cafe sales on an Acela are done on credit, at least on weekdays, so it's not like we'd be losing much in sales on a typical weekday. I have only worked a very small handful of Acelas on weekends (Boston only crews a single Acela cafe from WAS-BOS on Sundays), but I seem to recall they feel more like a typical Regional crowd, and do about the same amount in credit vs cash sales.

Anyway, I could see them piloting this again in the future, but I'm still not sure how well it'd really go over. For example, I could see this working out fairly well if cart service were to return when the new Acelas are introduced. And no, I haven't heard any word on something like that. I have heard rumors of a second Club Car being added, which I guess would make sense if the cars hold less seating.

 

[neroden]

The mainline airlines are not run like businesses. Bluntly. They're run by dreamers. I shouldn't go into detail about that here, but Warren Buffett has made some choice comments about the futility of investing in the airline industry.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

With this response I would like to circle the topic back around to where it was mentioned that pretty much all the mainline airlines, who are run like businesses, do this.

Currency still works fine on mainline airlines outside of the US. Americans love credit because they have no concept of responsible saving and budgeting and see no problem with racking up massive debts at usury rates. Outside of the US the credit market isn't treated like a wild west boom town or mafioso stronghold.

Like jis I rarely use cash. I use my credit card for everything and reap the rewards and pay the balance in full each month. I can't remember the last time I even went to an atm or needed cash. I welcome the change on Acela.

You welcome a change that provides no additional benefit to you but takes an important option away from others?

I actually have a real, live chip and pin card, and ironically it's that dinosaur of all credit credit card dinosaurs - a Diners Club card. The USA Diners Club card is issued by Bank of Montreal and, for acceptance purposes, is a Mastercard. I have not had a chance to use it for a true chip and pin transaction yet.

Electronic financial security is all about identifying and remedying the weakest link in the chain. Having a chip and PIN card doesn't provide any additional security unless the account ONLY authorized a transaction when BOTH the chip AND the PIN have been validated in real time. So long as the card can be swiped with a magnetic strip, OR the chip can be validated without a PIN, OR the card number can be manually entered into a POS terminal or website using the CVV there is no meaningful security in effect.

 

[jis]

I just like a chip and pin card because it is the only one that works in unmanned vending machines abroad. They do claim that it has reduced fraud dramatically.

Fact of the matter is that nothing can be completely secured. What one does is apply multiple techniques to block different attack vectors.

The Chip and PIN is a good technique for attacking the use of an actual card at a vending machine vector, provided all vending machines use chip and PIN. Vending machines that use the strip are more vulnerable than those that use Chip and PIN.

Of course C&P does not protect against fraud committed on internet transactions. Techniques such as ApplePay protect against such, even though those too can be compromised. But the degree of difficulty to compromise is considerably higher than in non token based techniques that does not link the validity of a token to a biometric identity. It provides a stronger trust chain than just token, which merely prevents replay attacks.

The total amount of fraud is a sum of frauds committed using various different techniques. If you can plug some major vectors then you are that much ahead. That together with proactive identification and blocking of suspicious charges over the internet, immediate notification of internet charges to the card owner, sometimes asking for verification before approval etc. are various techniques that work for internet transactions. Whether such immediate verification is triggered depends on the size of the transaction. I have found just eh immediate notification feature extremely useful for the cards that I own.

Anyway, bottom line is every hole that you can plu helps that much, and bigger the hole, bigger the hole. Chip and PIN plugs one or two huge holes. Of course there are others that it does not touch.