Is your credit card safe in the sky?

JEAN Shanley bought a Bloody Mary on board her SouthWest Airlines flight from Louisville to Los Vegas. It cost her $5.

The flight, like many operated through America, was a “cashless environment” where travellers can only buy items on board using their credit cards. So Ms Shanley gave the flight attendant her American Express card.

When she returned home, Ms Shanley found $1300 in fraudulent charges on the card. And she’s blaming SouthWest airlines.

Ms Shanley claims the flight attendant took the card for more than 15 minutes and timing of the charges was directly after her flight.

"I think it's strange that the charges showed up two days after that flight, and I have never had a problem before," she told the Tribune.

SouthWest claims it isn’t responsible. "Cardholders tend to focus on the last known legitimate charge as being the point of compromise," airline spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said.

"However, our security folks advise us that it could be any number of merchants where the card was used prior to the Southwest flight."

She said Southwest has "no reason" to suspect the crew on Ms Shanley's flight but agreed to forward her complaint to management "for their review."

The issue does raise the question of how safe your credit card is on a flight. As more flights move to cashless environments – should you hand over your plastic?

Digital privacy expert John Sileo says travellers should be concerned.

An accomplished carder can clone a credit card right in front of you without your knowing it," he said. "They make it look like they're sliding the card into the check folio but they're actually swiping the card."

So how can travellers protect themselves?

Identity-theft expert Rob Douglas says that using cash whenever possible is the only way to be safe until credit card companies upgrade their security.