FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - USA contactless credit/debit/transit (2017 - 2021)
Old Oct 11, 2019, 7:10 pm
  #7254  
tmiw
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: San Diego, CA
Programs: GE, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 15,507
I noticed someone try to tap a card to get out of the mall's parking structure today. I'm not sure if it was a contactless credit/debit card or one of the employee passes the mall offers (though I'm thinking former as I also saw inserting happening).

Anyway, while I was waiting for that person to get their card/ticket to read, I was thinking--why not let people tap their cards on the way into the mall (instead of getting a ticket)? It could preauthorize the maximum daily parking rate ($15, IIRC) or even authorize offline if the card can do fDDA. On exit (maybe without having to tap again as this mall has license plate scanners too), the system could either refund the unused portion (possibly all $15 since the first 2 hours are free) or actually submit the charge. Of course, there's probably some technical/logistical reason why that can't happen*.

* The movie theater and a few stores/restaurants will validate for an additional hour of free parking, so there'd likely still need to be a mechanism to print/scan tickets.
tmiw is offline