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Southwest Joins Ranks of Airlines With a 'Plastic Only' Policy

February 2, 2009 at 9:15 AM | by JetSetCD | 2 Comments

Need a glass of chardonnay to make it through your Albuquerque-Spokane flight? Go ahead and order up that drink, but be prepared to flash your plastic; save the singles for other pleasures.

This last fall, Southwest Airlines joined a long list of other domestic airlines employing the "cashless cabin" service. Effectively removing the flight attendants' burden of having to carry out a mini cash drawer and dole out change mid-air, the credit card-only policy is all about streamlining in-flight service.

Just like on a big international flight, these days the flight attendants tote a small charge machine, ready and willing to bill you $3 for that special can of Monster Lo-Carb energy drink. Have your plastic at the ready on these airlines: Alaskan, Frontier, JetBlue, AirTran, Virgin America and Midwest Airlines, but not Northwest--they are one of the few still standing by the almighty greenback with a strict cash-only policy on domestic routes. Let's just hope they don't make the cabin crew sport change belts.

Related Stories:
· Southwest Airlines Cash Free Cabins [Business Travellogue]
· Airline News coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: flySAS.com]

2 Comments

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Return to » Southwest Joins Ranks of Airlines With a 'Plastic Only' Policy

  1. ecortes

    Jaunted Member

    Suggestion

    Yeah this seems like a good idea but I've actually seen SouthWest's credit swipe machine in action. It's such a hassle especially if you're THE ONLY ONE making a credit purchase. The only way this'll work is if the flight attendants decide to carry the machine on their belt while walking down the aisles. haha
    February 2, 2009 at 10:18 AM
    #Permalink

  1. juliana

    Jaunted Contributing Editor

    exact change

    i know that flight attendants always fret about not having exact change to give back to passengers. have you ever waited like an hour for them to change your $20? so i am sure that this comes from that. but if airlines are going to start charging us more for everything inflight--meals, headphones, drinks, pillows--they should be fully prepared to conduct cash transactions.
    February 2, 2009 at 10:28 AM
    #Permalink

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