Buy Airline ticket with Credit Card?

[marco polo]

hi all,

I want to purchase an airline ticket for a friend, using my Credit
Card.

Can I pay for it - and put the ticket in Her name?

thanks
marc

[S Viemeister]

Graham Harrison wrote:
>
> The advice to check with the airline is good.
>
> However, I doubt very much that you will get "hard" tickets (made of
> paper!). The industry has moved to e-tickets and they are well aware
> that people do buy tickets for one another and procedures are in place
> that allow you to pay with your card and your friend to travel without
> having to show your card. The likelihood is that another form of
> identification (probably the passport of your friend) will be used instead.

Over the past few years I've bought e-tickets for my mother, husband,
and daughter, using my credit card. None of them had any problems at
check-in. Photo ID was of course required, but that would have been
necessary even had they used their own credit cards.

[SMS]

Hatunen wrote:
> On Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:40:36 -0700 (PDT), marco polo
> <markphd21@**********> wrote:
>
>> hi all,
>>
>> I want to purchase an airline ticket for a friend, using my Credit
>> Card.
>>
>> Can I pay for it - and put the ticket in Her name?
>
> Check with the airline on this. The airline usually requires that
> the ticket holder show the same crdit card used to buy the
> tickets.

This is no longer the case, at least not on any airline I've flown in
the past five years. You can pick up your E-ticket by putting your
reservation number into the kiosk or a credit card with the same name as
on the ticket.

[AES]

In article <X7u%l.946$Wj7.879@nlpi065.nbdc.sbc.com>,
SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:

> > Check with the airline on this. The airline usually requires that
> > the ticket holder show the same crdit card used to buy the
> > tickets.
>
> This is no longer the case, at least not on any airline I've flown in
> the past five years. You can pick up your E-ticket by putting your
> reservation number into the kiosk or a credit card with the same name as
> on the ticket.

My experience also (on United, and I think others). If you have the
card, inserting it gives you quick and automated login; otherwise you
have to use the touch screen to key in the reservation ID code that was
emailed to you.

[Graham Harrison]

"AES" <siegman@stanford.edu> wrote in message
news:siegman-B19435.11172321062009@news.stanford.edu...
> In article <X7u%l.946$Wj7.879@nlpi065.nbdc.sbc.com>,
> SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:
>
>> > Check with the airline on this. The airline usually requires that
>> > the ticket holder show the same crdit card used to buy the
>> > tickets.
>>
>> This is no longer the case, at least not on any airline I've flown in
>> the past five years. You can pick up your E-ticket by putting your
>> reservation number into the kiosk or a credit card with the same name as
>> on the ticket.
>
> My experience also (on United, and I think others). If you have the
> card, inserting it gives you quick and automated login; otherwise you
> have to use the touch screen to key in the reservation ID code that was
> emailed to you.

Yes, but the point remains that you needed to have the original payment card
in your possession to "show" to the machine. As I have said elsewhere,
other forms of ID are acceptable, particularly in the case described by the
OP.

[VS]

In article <X7u%l.946$Wj7.879@nlpi065.nbdc.sbc.com>,
SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:

>> Check with the airline on this. The airline usually requires that
>> the ticket holder show the same crdit card used to buy the tickets.
>
>This is no longer the case, at least not on any airline I've flown in
>the past five years.

BA still requires this, although enforcement is sporadic.

[Graham Harrison]

"VS" <shmat@xenon.Stanford.EDU> wrote in message
news:h1n2p3$58h$1@xenon.Stanford.EDU...
> In article <X7u%l.946$Wj7.879@nlpi065.nbdc.sbc.com>,
> SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:
>
>>> Check with the airline on this. The airline usually requires that
>>> the ticket holder show the same crdit card used to buy the tickets.
>>
>>This is no longer the case, at least not on any airline I've flown in
>>the past five years.
>
> BA still requires this, although enforcement is sporadic.
>

Not true. It is their preferred method but I've bought ET for other
passengers on BA and they have travelled quite successfully despite not
having a copy of my card.

[VS]

In article <SP-dnU-BKI9gh6LXnZ2dnUVZ8oGdnZ2d@bt.com>,
Graham Harrison <edward.harrison1@remove.***************> wrote:

>>BA still requires this, although enforcement is sporadic.
>
>Not true.

Cut-and-pasted from the confirmation email for a BA e-ticket I bought
for someone else (dated Nov 25, 2008):

``Please remember you must bring the card used to pay for this booking
to the airport with you, for verification, before you can travel.''

>It is their preferred method but I've bought ET for other
>passengers on BA and they have travelled quite successfully despite not
>having a copy of my card.

In my experience, enforcement is sporadic. I've never seen this
enforced anywhere except London (doesn't mean this can't happen), but
at LGW, I was asked to show the card I used for payment as recently
as 2007.

[Graham Harrison]

"VS" <shmat@xenon.Stanford.EDU> wrote in message
news:h1n6ui$nen$1@xenon.Stanford.EDU...
> In article <SP-dnU-BKI9gh6LXnZ2dnUVZ8oGdnZ2d@bt.com>,
> Graham Harrison <edward.harrison1@remove.***************> wrote:
>
>>>BA still requires this, although enforcement is sporadic.
>>
>>Not true.
>
> Cut-and-pasted from the confirmation email for a BA e-ticket I bought
> for someone else (dated Nov 25, 2008):
>
> ``Please remember you must bring the card used to pay for this booking
> to the airport with you, for verification, before you can travel.''
>
>>It is their preferred method but I've bought ET for other
>>passengers on BA and they have travelled quite successfully despite not
>>having a copy of my card.
>
> In my experience, enforcement is sporadic. I've never seen this
> enforced anywhere except London (doesn't mean this can't happen), but
> at LGW, I was asked to show the card I used for payment as recently
> as 2007.
>

Don't care what it says. Badly worded. The IATA standards allow for
various forms of identification to be presented. There are, without doubt,
fraud issues associated with credit cards that mean that, when possible, all
airlines like to see the card. However, they are well aware that
passengers buy tickets for one another and they know which card has been
used for payment *and* who the cardholder is so that they do *not* ask for
the card from someone who is not the cardholder.

In the very early days of ET I bought a ticket from BA for someone to travel
from Baltimore to London and back (I'm in London). The question of
producing the card did arise but once BA realised that the cardholder was in
the UK and the passenger in the USA all was OK. On subsequent trips there
was no problem. Equally, on my first ET trip I presented myself at Gatwick
to BA who looked slight disconcerted when I announced I had an ET and made
no attempt to produce any paper at all or my card (other than my passport
because I was going to Denver) but the check in person took a deep breath
and processed me no problem.

This thing of buying a ticket for someone else has been around for years
and, in the same vein, the ticket (with a few exceptions related to currency
regulations) can start and end anywhere in the world. I've purchased
tickets for other people from New York to Milan and Stockholm to Geneva to
name but two and they've never come anywhere near the UK, much less London.
It's a non issue. It's totally doable.

[VS]

In article <Pd2dnVM_msa0d6LXnZ2dnUVZ8hWdnZ2d@bt.com>,
Graham Harrison <edward.harrison1@remove.***************> wrote:

>>Cut-and-pasted from the confirmation email for a BA e-ticket I bought
>>for someone else (dated Nov 25, 2008):
>>``Please remember you must bring the card used to pay for this booking
>>to the airport with you, for verification, before you can travel.''
>
>Don't care what it says.

You don't. But BA does, sporadically. For example, I was asked to show
the credit card used to pay for the ticket when checking in at Gatwick.

>Badly worded.

Which part of ``Please remember you must bring the card used to pay
for this booking to the airport with you, for verification, before
you can travel'' do you find unclear?

>However, they are well aware that
>passengers buy tickets for one another and they know which card has been
>used for payment *and* who the cardholder is so that they do *not* ask for
>the card from someone who is not the cardholder.

Of course. That's why they recommend that the cardholder bring the
card to the airport (or, according to BA's phone representative,
city ticket office) for verification at any time before travel.

>I've purchased
>tickets for other people from New York to Milan and Stockholm to Geneva to
>name but two and they've never come anywhere near the UK, much less London.

Indeed, I have never seen this enforced anywhere except London.
But in London, I was asked for the card and saw this happen to
other people.

>It's a non issue. It's totally doable.

Yes, it's doable, as long as you bring the card used to pay for the
booking to the airport with you, for verification, before you travel.

Enforcement is sporadic, so you may very well get away without card
verification. But then again you may not, especially if checking in
in London. The fact of the matter that BA's e-ticket receipt
clearly says:

``Please remember you must bring the card used to pay for this booking
to the airport with you, for verification, before you can travel.''