Passengers Ante Up $2,000 to Refuel 737

A group of airline passengers used the power of the pocketbook to avert a long layover on a Portuguese island, paying to refuel a Boeing 737 after an airport refused the pilot’s credit card, British Airways said Saturday.

The airline said the pilot of the London-bound flight raised $2,000 from among his 100 passengers after airport workers at Porto Santo, part of the Madeira island group in the North Atlantic, refused to accept the standard credit card used by pilots to pay refueling costs.

One passenger kicked in $1,000, an airline spokesman said. The airline reimbursed the passengers on the Sept. 3 flight when they arrived at London’s Gatwick Airport, he added.

The fuel collection was a “bit unorthodox, but it was done to save time,” he said.