In article , (Roland
Perry) wrote:

In message , at
11:56:52 on Wed, 26 Nov 2008, remarked:
As the visits are for academic purposes does it not occur to you
that the hosts might provide accommodation?

At the airport?

No, such that only travel and not accommodation is an expense that
needs to be reclaimed. You're being very dense today, Roland.

You aren't explaining the rules very well. So far we have
stopovers-allowed, but travel-from-airport not allowed.

None of that. He gets flights and they are paid for by the people to whom
he is giving lectures. Sounds simple enough to me.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In article , (Roland
Perry) wrote:

In message , at 18:10:56 on
Wed, 26 Nov 2008, Neil Williams
remarked:

There is only (!) Gatwick Express Only, Thameslink Only and
Southern Only.

Which begs he question of how you can get to Waterloo East on an
"FCC only" ticket, which is what the
tourist-confusing-special-assistant hovering by the ticket machines
advised me to buy when I asked a couple of months ago.

The FCC ticket I got last month was not labelled "FCC (or any other
formula) only". If I was at home tonight I'd dig it out and quote what it
actually says. I have a feeling I gave that information here about a month
ago, however.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:25:41 -0600,
wrote:

I was told that an FCC ticket was valid for an outward journey from
Clapham Junction (i.e. using Southern) and travelled that way last month
without problems.

That might be a "gentleman's agreement" of some sort, though, or just
accepted practice. Strictly speaking, a TOC-routed ticket doesn't fit
with the "more expensive ticket valid via the cheaper route" rule, and
it also can't be excessed to another route.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

Andrew Heenan wrote:
"David of Broadway" :
UK-based vending machines, by and large, do not recognize the existence
of non-chip-and-PIN cards. (There are some exceptions. My card was
accepted on the first try at the leftmost vending machine at Golders
Green two weeks ago. I think the smaller machines may accept
non-chip-and-PIN cards.)

What's happening about chip and pin in the US?
I thought it was well underway?

Not in the slightest. If any cards have chips, they're in the extreme
minority, and vendors don't have PIN-pads (unless they accept ATM cards).
--
David of Broadway

In article ,
(Neil Williams) wrote:

On Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:25:41 -0600,
wrote:

I was told that an FCC ticket was valid for an outward journey from
Clapham Junction (i.e. using Southern) and travelled that way last
month without problems.

That might be a "gentleman's agreement" of some sort, though, or just
accepted practice. Strictly speaking, a TOC-routed ticket doesn't fit
with the "more expensive ticket valid via the cheaper route" rule, and
it also can't be excessed to another route.

It didn't say it was FCC-only. It looks like I asked the question here in
response.

And what tickets can I get this week for Cambridge-London Zones
1-2, then Clapham Jcn-Gatwick Airport, return via Thameslink St
Pancras/King's Cross? I'm assuming Saver Return Cambridge-Zones
1/2, Saver Return London Terminals-Gatwick (not Gatwick Express).

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:15:14 +0100, David of Broadway
wrote:

UK-based vending machines, by and large, do not recognize the existence
of non-chip-and-PIN cards. (There are some exceptions. My card was
accepted on the first try at the leftmost vending machine at Golders
Green two weeks ago. I think the smaller machines may accept
non-chip-and-PIN cards.)

That's interesting - and a bit disappointing. I'd have hoped that we
could do a bit better than that, but then it's hard to know.

[then...]
I can now also report success at the Louvre ticket machines. Seems like
it's possible to program a vending machine to accept non-chip-and-PIN
cards if desired.

I remember before we had chip-and-PIN, France was a troublesome area.
For a few years there were stories of real humans erroneously
rejecting foreign cards but eventually that settled down and we were
left with the usual problems at machines. RATP and SNCF took pride of
place at the front of the list of awkward buggers.

In the Underground's case, there would be no excuse would there, given
the huge numbers of people visiting London with magnetic cards?

Then there are countries that are equipped for chip-and-PIN but the
shops don't know it. I've been round the back of bars or into little
offices to enter my PIN into a shiny new terminal where it seemed
quite a novelty - presumably at the time they were at the early stages
of their own roll-out. Maybe the same thing has happened in the UK
to, e.g. French card-holders?

Richard.

"Richard" wrote ...
I remember before we had chip-and-PIN, France was a troublesome area.
For a few years there were stories of real humans erroneously
rejecting foreign cards but eventually that settled down and we were
left with the usual problems at machines. RATP and SNCF took pride of
place at the front of the list of awkward buggers.

As it happens, France was the first with chip and pin, right back in 1992
(12 years before anyone else!).

So while they were cutting credit card fraud by 80%, the rest of the world
wasn't, and they were somewhat suspicious of 'foreign' cards.

Now much of Europe uses c&p, and the French have had to rebuild, as -
surprise surprise - the agreed system did not match their pioneering one.

And, as we now know, the USA is actually the last Big Country to join the
party; I'm guessing that older machines are much more likely to be
magnetic-strip friendly (and there's plenty of pre-2005 machines out there).

Side note: since we all went Gung-Ho for C&P, the crims have moved on too,
and now "security" is a bit of a joke (and I'm not talking about TfL Knowing
that I took a 43 from Angel to Highbury corner three days ago, either!)

It's a Grand Life, Grommit!

Andrew

In message , at 12:21:37 on Thu, 27
Nov 2008, Andrew Heenan remarked:
As it happens, France was the first with chip and pin, right back in 1992
(12 years before anyone else!).

So while they were cutting credit card fraud by 80%, the rest of the world
wasn't, and they were somewhat suspicious of 'foreign' cards.

The real reason the French cut their fraud was by lowering the
floor-limit to Zero, at the same time as introducing Chip-and-PIN.
--
Roland Perry

"Richard" wrote in message
...

I remember before we had chip-and-PIN, France was a troublesome area.
For a few years there were stories of real humans erroneously
rejecting foreign

It never happened to me but I think it was more stories. In the mid-90s my
CC company sent me (and presumably many if not all of their customers) a CC
sized slip with their logo and, IIRC, French & UK phone numbers on it that
said (in French and English) something like 'UK credit cards do not have a
chip and so cannot be used in a chip & pin machine. They are authenticated
using the signature on the back'.

--
regards

Stephen

cards but eventually that settled down and we were
left with the usual problems at machines. RATP and SNCF took pride of
place at the front of the list of awkward buggers.

"Andrew Heenan" wrote in message
...
"Richard" wrote ...
I remember before we had chip-and-PIN, France was a troublesome area.
For a few years there were stories of real humans erroneously
rejecting foreign cards but eventually that settled down and we were
left with the usual problems at machines. RATP and SNCF took pride of
place at the front of the list of awkward buggers.

As it happens, France was the first with chip and pin, right back in 1992
(12 years before anyone else!).

So while they were cutting credit card fraud by 80%, the rest of the world
wasn't, and they were somewhat suspicious of 'foreign' cards.

I believe that French banks introduced C&P in get shops to accept cards at
all. The position was that, under some old law, cheques had to be honoured
by the banks {1][2]. Card payments, being introduced after the law, were
not covered and did not have to be honoured if, say, the signature was
nothing like the specimen.

Hence to get shops to accept card payments the banks introduced C&P as a
more secure system, with less chance of fraud and less chance of the bank
dishonouring the payment.

1. I think pretty much whatever the signature on the cheque was like.
2. The bank's only sanction was to refuse to issue a new cheque book to
someone they suspected of passing duff cheques or of getting their cheque
book 'stolen' too often.
--
regards

Stephen

Now much of Europe uses c&p, and the French have had to rebuild, as -
surprise surprise - the agreed system did not match their pioneering one.

And, as we now know, the USA is actually the last Big Country to join the
party; I'm guessing that older machines are much more likely to be
magnetic-strip friendly (and there's plenty of pre-2005 machines out
there).

Side note: since we all went Gung-Ho for C&P, the crims have moved on too,
and now "security" is a bit of a joke (and I'm not talking about TfL
Knowing that I took a 43 from Angel to Highbury corner three days ago,
either!)

It's a Grand Life, Grommit!

Andrew