Originally Posted by
HNLbasedFlyer
They could probably figure out a way to connect in the air if this had high margin potential - if this had such high margin potential, it probably would have been done already
almost certainly is possible (anyone know if other US carriers process charges in real-time on board using mobile devices?), but probably more difficult and/or costly to do this If connecting in the air. Which is probably why UA hasn’t done it, even pre-Covid. If they were to, probably why they would do it on their own devices - less liability issues if they use their own secured devices than Joe public’s.
Originally Posted by
bocastephen
It's no different with the machines in use today - the only question is who is putting the card in with whose hands. Anyone could give the FA a card for a closed account, buy up a storm on board, and then walk away while UA eats the declined transaction after arrival.
theoretically you could certainly have done that in the past until March (not suggesting one should try). Errant receipts aside due to seat changes, etc, but with UA tracking these by seat on the app the FAs use, also probably not that difficult for HQ to track down this kind of attempted fraud