Airtime Rewards


There you go

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Thanks @Breezy :+1:

They could do with adding that list to their website

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It’s as you get in the app.

I’ve signed up, but as I don’t go directly with any of the networks listed, dunno if I’ll get anything.

Mastercard have a system called MDES (Mastercard Digital Enablement Service) which allows for “tokens” to be created, linked to a cardholder’s real card number in the Mastercard system. These extra numbers generated as part of the tokenisation are also recognised by the bank as “the same” account, but generally merchants don’t see that (the whole point, in many ways, was to limit their data).

I suspect that a version of this tokenisation, originally designed for digital wallets, is being used for the numberless card. I imagine that, for the partner retailers, this works similarly to Flux. They likely give Airtime Rewards data on everyone who has shopped with them, including their full card number. Airtime then “sift” this data to identify which customers have signed up to Airtime Rewards and which haven’t. This must involve putting the data through Mastercard’s system at some stage, to see if they get a match on a tokenised card number.

Certain merchants are allowed to “reverse the tokenisation” and see the real card number on an account in order to match up these sorts of things. TfL, for example, can do it (although they don’t generally so you still pay a penalty fare if you tap in and out with different devices). Having checked the number as part of this reconciliation process, Airtime would know that you are their customer and be able to match the transaction.

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Amazing, knew you’d be able to shed light on it! Thank you :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

From what I’ve heard, TfL also aren’t matching the physical Chase card with the virtual numbers, so you can’t view your physical card’s travel history in the TfL app, which is a shame now knowing that they totally have the capability to do it.

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I see Airtime Rewards is using the same outdated BIN database as me :sweat_smile:

They don’t routinely do it because if they did you could travel with other people (one paying contactless, one Apple Pay, one something else) and it would be too open to abuse as the system would probably count them all as the same thing and you would only pay for one daily-capped fare.

But if you say “I tapped in with Apple Pay and then my phone battery died so I tapped out with my contactless card” they can see it is actually the same card number on the underlying system if they check it so they can “verify” to an extent that your story is genuine. This allows you to get a penalty fare refunded if you need to and contact customer services.

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I’ve always used Oyster (railcard discount!) so I don’t actually know, but if you add, for example, your Starling debit card to the TfL app and then complete a journey using Apple Pay, doesn’t TfL still match the Apple Pay journey to your underlying card and display it in your history (despite Apple Pay presenting a different number), using the reverse tokenisation you described earlier? It’s this kind of retrospective matching that I’d like them to do for Chase, otherwise there’s no way of people viewing their physical card’s journey history. I’m not suggesting they allow for a journey to be started using one method (eg physical card) and ended using another (eg Apple Pay).

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Yes it does!

I know, but that’s why they don’t routinely allow general linking in a routine sense.

Got it, and I must say I have thought to myself before ‘why on Earth won’t they just let me tap out with my watch if my phone dies,’ but now you’ve explained it! So basically a contactless daily or weekly cap only applies to that single form of payment; i.e. if I hit a daily cap using my Starling card on my iPhone’s Apple Pay, a journey made with my physical Starling card would be treated as a separate card - despite TfL being aware of the common underlying card - and will be charged in full?

I believe so, although I’ve never tested it as I’m rarely in London and, when I am, if I hit the fare cap it’s not in my interest to continue paying via an “alternative” method!

PS: I should add, the details of the way the system works are not fully documented, presumably to avoid any reverse-engineering which might allow people to exploit loopholes.

So that is all based on my understanding of how it works, and not any official sources. I don’t work for TfL or anything like that, so have no “insider knowledge”.

Airtime Rewards have responded to my Twitter DM today, confirming that I am not eligible for the rewards on the Plusnet network :man_facepalming:

It appears that I was only able to register because I had selected the network Plusnet runs on (EE) otherwise it would not have let me proceed.

So, it appears I have wasted my time as I won’t receive the rewards earned already.

I had even referred! :rofl:

Oh well. Not the end of the world.

Not sure if that effects you receiving your referral pennies @Mathew

You may continue earning and claim it when you switch networks in the future.

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Yeah, they have just confirmed that I can continue to earn and gift the rewards to family/friends, or if I change to compatible network.

That’ll do me :smiley:

I’ve now found out I won’t get any rewards unless I carry my physical Chase card as they’re not tracked through Curve/Google Pay.

As all my spending goes through Chase, it’s no use to me again.

Just a heads up for anyone else using Chase through Curve.

I use Chase through Curve and my rewards are tracked. And for airtime rewards I have my Chase and Curve cards both registered. So whatever way I choose to pay, it tracks

Oh right.

This is what they told me:

Thanks for getting in touch. We’re not able to track transactions made via Curve, unfortunately. You can use Apple Pay and Google Pay at some of our partnered retailers, we kindly ask that you double check a specific retailer supports this payment method before making a purchase to avoid any disappointment.

And when I reiterated that Chase was only through Curve for Google Pay, they said:

If your Chase card is registered via this payment method then we won’t be able to track your transactions, unfortunately. We appreciate your feedback and will pass this over to our team.

Let’s see if today’s transactions do indeed track then.

How long before your transactions appeared in your AR feed ?

What I did is register my Curve card. I have been using Curve before and transactions track. 10+ days. Same waiting times for other cards.
So the Curve card itself is tracked no matter the underlying card. All these were through Curve. It was my only card on Airtime Rewards before I added Chase

Of course :man_facepalming: