Originally Posted by
Southlondonbonviveur
Why don't BA instruct crew to take payment first before providing the food/drink? That would avoid a scenario such as that described by the OP.
Yes, it kind of works like that: On most (but not all) flights I've been on, the following process is adopted: You have two staff on the trolley, one operating the TourPOS and the other assembling the drinks. Tea and coffee require several things to be assembled (cups, milk, sugar, cap, the clear beaker, serviette, stir stick), so usually the transaction can be lined up on the POS, and then the POS is ready to process the card at about the same time as the drink is ready to serve. So generally speaking the customer hands over the card and the crew then hand over the drink in a swap manœuvre. In that circumstance this incident would not have happened: the drink isn't given over until after the customer has at least shown their card.
What sometimes happens is that given that TourPOS is so clunky the operating crew member is still processing the previous customer's transaction, and so the refreshments crew member takes it on his/herself to sort out the next customer to make use of the time.
Incidentally I don't think drinks handed out for without charge by accident are taken off wages, that would be illegal under the Truck Act. However it would dent commission in a minuscule way, and clearly there would be a potentially serious staff issue if sales and stock levels (belonging to a third party) were out of kilter.