"14 Airport Hacks" - Seems Wrong/Unethical
Oct 24, 2016, 9:15 pm
#106
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Tokyo
Programs: SPG LT Plat ANA Plat
Posts: 596
People can ask me for my WIFI password and I will provide it to them free of charge for them to use when they pass my apartment if they want. However I do not live in the centre of the city so odds of passing my appartment unless you need to be there are very very slim.
Oct 24, 2016, 11:07 pm
#107
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Programs: Amex Platinum, Amex HHonors Surpass, HHonors Gold
Posts: 207
Again - that's all well and good. But stealing WiFi is not the answer in places where it's not currently free. There is nothing you can say and no opinion you can express that can justify theft of services, full stop.
Oct 25, 2016, 5:57 am
#108
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Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: HaMerkaz/Exit 145
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It is unethical, but I can absolutely say this works (or at least used to). I used to work for an airline, and a card with a genuine Visa/MC/Amex number (even pre-paid with $0.00 balance or an HSA or FSA card) will work because the auths aren't in real time. They work for inflight purchases too (food/alcohol). I don't know if this is still the case, but they did work in the past. I know some airlines don't take gift cards for this specific reason (and yes, the system can tell the difference), but pre-paid cards worked. I would imagine it didn't work for inflight internet because of the real time nature of the CC auth.
At least for the airline I worked for, they asked the FA's to look out for it for in-flight purchases (FSA cards are usually labeled as such), but ... only so much you can do.
At least for the airline I worked for, they asked the FA's to look out for it for in-flight purchases (FSA cards are usually labeled as such), but ... only so much you can do.
Oct 27, 2016, 9:21 pm
#109
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: CBR
Programs: QF, Velocity, AA
Posts: 284
Except that the people who are offering the internet for sale do not 'own' the internet. You can't sell something that you don't own (that you in fact cannot own).
Maybe because we have many, many more passenger train stations than there are in America, and far superior train service for passengers, and often for lower fares than in America (partly state-subsidized).
Maybe because we have many, many more passenger train stations than there are in America, and far superior train service for passengers, and often for lower fares than in America (partly state-subsidized).
Oct 27, 2016, 10:02 pm
#110
Join Date: Sep 2015
Programs: 1 thousand
Posts: 2,112
1) trains have toilets on board, so if you have a ticket you essentially have free toilet access, so virtually none of the passengers will use station toilet facilities
2) Stations are often just normal city buildings in downtown. (And I don't often see free public bathroom facilites in US downtowns)
However I've found non-downtown stations do tend to have free toilet usage, it's only the big stations that have a paid service.
Also, increasingly, european train stations do have free wifi available, at least in the countries I live-in/frequent.
Oct 28, 2016, 2:07 am
#111
Join Date: Jun 2016
Programs: BAEC, IB+, TAM multi+
Posts: 453
The money you save on train tickets in europe (vs the US) is way more than the 50 cents it costs to use the restroom at major train stations. And there are free toilets available in the trains themselves.
Oct 28, 2016, 2:14 am
#112
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So if it's a cheap train, it's OK to charge money for a basic human right - the right to use the bathroom; but it's never acceptable to charge for WiFi, so much so that we should actively ways to game the system in order to steal internet access? Am I understanding this correctly?
Oct 28, 2016, 5:09 am
#113
Join Date: Jun 2016
Programs: BAEC, IB+, TAM multi+
Posts: 453
So if it's a cheap train, it's OK to charge money for a basic human right - the right to use the bathroom; but it's never acceptable to charge for WiFi, so much so that we should actively ways to game the system in order to steal internet access? Am I understanding this correctly?
You can use the toilet free of charge in the train, if you don't want to pay 50 cents to use the toilet at the train station.
Oct 28, 2016, 8:13 pm
#115
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Oct 30, 2016, 12:47 am
#116
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The toilet on the train is nowhere near the quality of those in the station AND is only accessible to someone riding the train. Someone not riding the train (say an arriving passenger) is stuck, no different than an arriving flight passenger is "stuck" without WiFi
Oct 30, 2016, 1:51 am
#117
Join Date: Jun 2016
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Posts: 453
An 'arriving' passenger will be arriving from, you know what? A train. With a toilet.
If you want a very clean premium toilet as opposed to the filthy train toilets then I think 50 cents is a very reasonable price to pay for that. If you cannot pay those 50 cents for some reason then you can use the filthy train toilets.
Oct 30, 2016, 2:17 am
#118
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I really dont know what yoru deal is with the toilets in a thread that is not about toilets.
An 'arriving' passenger will be arriving from, you know what? A train. With a toilet.
If you want a very clean premium toilet as opposed to the filthy train toilets then I think 50 cents is a very reasonable price to pay for that. If you cannot pay those 50 cents for some reason then you can use the filthy train toilets.
An 'arriving' passenger will be arriving from, you know what? A train. With a toilet.
If you want a very clean premium toilet as opposed to the filthy train toilets then I think 50 cents is a very reasonable price to pay for that. If you cannot pay those 50 cents for some reason then you can use the filthy train toilets.
Oct 30, 2016, 2:37 am
#119
Join Date: Jun 2016
Programs: BAEC, IB+, TAM multi+
Posts: 453
At train stations, you can use the toilet in the train for free.
Oct 30, 2016, 3:03 am
#120
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Ya, not the same. There are myriad of workarounds, but the basic passenger in a European train station can't use the toilet for free. Knowing that the train in 4 hours will have a toilet doesn't help now...