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Comment by zarzavat | Hacker News Reader

This is a terrible idea. Many people fly on tickets bought by other people. E.g. business travelers, children flying alone. So for all of those passengers, they will not be able to pay at the airport.

Moreover, not everybody is plumbed into the German banking system. If you came to Germany from abroad, is your foreign debit card going to work at the airport? Who knows!

It’s unreasonable for passengers to not know if they will be able to pay for the flight, until 3 hours before. What if their bank’s anti-fraud puts a hold on the payment? What do they expect passengers to do, get on the phone to their bank while at the check in counter?

Payment is made in advance to give passengers time to resolve payment issues. It is mutually beneficial for passengers and airlines.

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You would still be required to provide a credit card, like when you book a rental car. The card will often be charged later, but the payment is "cleared" in advanced.

In Germany it would be a debit card. As I understand it preauthorization expires after some time. You cannot have a 3 month preauth. To do what you describe they would have to actually charge the card then refund it later which is... how it works now.

I wish if it was possible charging the card used in booking later - when the service is actually used - than the booking time.

Wait a minute! It is! : ))

It is, but it's not practical for the time frames in air travel booking.

Authorization holds are valid for at most 30 days, and less than that in many circumstances (debit cards, non-travel transactions etc). The card payment industry would have to change their rules and business practices significantly, and this industry isn't known for moving quickly.

> Moreover, not everybody is plumbed into the German banking system. If you came to Germany from abroad, is your foreign debit card going to work at the airport? Who knows!

Is this really a worry? I have two debit cards (one issued in South America and another in Europe, one VISA and one MasterCard) and been traveling all over the world and don't think I've had issues with any of them for the last ~10 year or so. Used to be a bit hit&miss, but not in "modern times".

It’s absolutely an issue. I was in Turkey and could not get the luggage trolley dispenser to accept my card to give me a trolley. I had to carry my bags across the airport. Annoying, but at least it wasn’t a flight!

People come to airports from all over the world. You are going to hit every single payment edge case at an airport.

Also people in airports often have limited ability to communicate. Consider: you arrive in Germany on an international flight, go through immigration, then wish to take a connecting local flight to your final destination. When you’re in landside transit you may have no working SIM card or any kind of communications with your bank. That’s why flights are based on confirmed itineraries and not payment at the check in counter.

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