Someone not traveling purchasing a plane ticket for someone else?

[horseshowmom]

Someone asked me this question tonight, and I wanted up-do-date experiences.

She has purchased tickets for herself and her older daughter to go to NYC (older daughter is going to a social function at West Point). The younger daughter wants to go too. My friend's dad has said that he will purchase her ticket. Does it matter that he won't be traveling, but his credit card will be used?

I've purchased tickets for people before when I wasn't traveling with them, but I didn't know whether there might be new regulations with all of the security.

Thanks!

 

[plutolovr]

Should not be a problem. I purchase tickets for my adult children all the time with no issues.

 

[horseshowmom]

That's what I thought, but now I can give her a definitive answer.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

Our extended family recently purchased 28 tickets using 3 different credit cards to attend a memorial service. No one had an issues due to the ticket being purchased by someone on a different flight. -- Suzanne

 

[txo1474]

Horseshowmom,

Please have your friend call the specific airline and ask what their policy is.
The reason I reccomend this is because I have denied boarding to passengers on a few seperate occasions because they could not produce the CC used to purchase the ticket. The airline was United. The computer system sometimes will ask to see the CC used for purchase when you make a reservation on-line for a person other than the CC owner. This is for the protection of the CC owner. If you make a reservation AND pay for it by phone or in person at a ticket counter, the traveler will not have to produce the card.

 

[dburg30]

Horseshowmom,

Please have your friend call the specific airline and ask what their policy is.
The reason I reccomend this is because I have denied boarding to passengers on a few seperate occasions because they could not produce the CC used to purchase the ticket. The airline was United. The computer system sometimes will ask to see the CC used for purchase when you make a reservation on-line for a person other than the CC owner. This is for the protection of the CC owner. If you make a reservation AND pay for it by phone or in person at a ticket counter, the traveler will not have to produce the card.

Soooo, if someone, say in college, had an emergency come up, the parents that are back in some other state, make a reservation online, united may prevent that student from boarding because they dont have the CC? And yet if the parents had called they would? So someone using a phone couldnt have all the correct info and be comitting fraud? That was/is their policy? And txo1474, the rolleyes isnt toward you, but toward the policy..

 

[txo1474]

dburg30,

I rolled my eyes everytime I got the prompt to check the card! Since we were only told it was to "prevent fraud", we at the counter started to ask people when they were checking in how they purchased their ticket to see if there was a common denominator for the CC prompt. In every case the ticket was paid for on-line.

I just checked a couple of airline web sites and United is they only one I could find that states " you may be required to show CC to check-in"

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

My husband and I together flew over 200,000 miles on United Airlines in 2009 and not once were we asked to show the credit card used to purchase tickets.

OP - You will have no problems not having the cc used to purchase the ticket.

 

[Tozzie]

My husband and I together flew over 200,000 miles on United Airlines in 2009 and not once were we asked to show the credit card used to purchase tickets.

OP - You will have no problems not having the cc used to purchase the ticket.

Just because you had no problems doesn't mean someone else won't. There is a poster who works/worked for the airline who has told of denying people boarding due to not having the credit card.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Just because you had no problems doesn't mean someone else won't. There is a poster who works/worked for the airline who has told of denying people boarding due to not having the credit card.

So how does this work for the thousands of people who travel on United every day who have their travel paid by their employer (like my husband)? I have never been asked for the cc used to pay for travel, nor have I personally known anyone who has. I can only answer the OP based on my personal experience, not on what someone I don't know says or urban legends.

I personally think the OP has nothing to worry about.

 

[dburg30]

Just because you had no problems doesn't mean someone else won't. There is a poster who works/worked for the airline who has told of denying people boarding due to not having the credit card.

So how does this work for the thousands of people who travel on United every day who have their travel paid by their employer (like my husband)? I have never been asked for the cc used to pay for travel, nor have I personally known anyone who has. I can only answer the OP based on my personal experience, not on what someone I don't know says or urban legends.

I personally think the OP has nothing to worry about.

Especially if they arent flying united . I'm sure they could have ways of knowing it's a corporate account, so they wouldnt question it. But I'm not going to ignore the PP that says they worked for united and have had to do it before, just because you, a person I dont know, says so. So why not let the OP have as much information as possible, instead of "It's never happened to us, so dont worry about it"

 

[kaytieeldr]

Please have your friend call the specific airline and ask what their policy is.

Reinforcing this advice. Not even caring that the poster works for an airline. Policies and practices change all the time. ALL airlines have toll-free numbers. It's simple enough to call the airline and ask. ANY airline. You don't need to purchase the ticket on the phone - just ask if Person A can pay for Person B's ticket online if Person A isn't traveling. Simple, and you get the up-to-date answer.

 

[horseshowmom]

I just checked a couple of airline web sites and United is they only one I could find that states " you may be required to show CC to check-in"

In this case, the airline is Northwest.

Reinforcing this advice. Not even caring that the poster works for an airline. Policies and practices change all the time. ALL airlines have toll-free numbers. It's simple enough to call the airline and ask. ANY airline. You don't need to purchase the ticket on the phone - just ask if Person A can pay for Person B's ticket online if Person A isn't traveling. Simple, and you get the up-to-date answer.

I tried calling the airline before I posted this last night, and they weren't accepting calls (due to the current weather related travel issues). I'll try again today.

I've used our corporate card to purchase travel for myself and others many times and never had a problem, but I've never flown on United either.

My friend has never flown before, and I'm just trying to make things as simple as possible for her.

 

[Yzerbear19]

I think it depends on how the tickets are purchased. I know from past experience that Delta's website won't let you purchase a ticket for someone else if the CC holder isn't flying. Though you can purchase the same flight through a site like Travelocity or Expedia without the CC holder flying. My brother bought our tickets last year for Northwest/Delta through I think Expedia and we weren't asked to show the CC. The only issue was that he couldn't purchase the tickets directly from Delta.

 

[horseshowmom]

While I don't think she would have a problem, she's just going to get the money from her dad and put it on her own credit card. Thanks!

 

[MAH4546]

The triggers for asking to produce the CC are certain limited, unusual circumstances like a one-way ticket on an international routing or an extremely high fare bucket purchased online at the last minute.

There will be no issues.

 

[uva185]

I know from past experience that Delta's website won't let you purchase a ticket for someone else if the CC holder isn't flying.

ABSOLUTELY INCORRECT! I have never had a problem purchasing a ticket on delta.com for someone I wasn't flying with.

I have had countless tickets paid for by someone not flying and I have never had a problem.

That said some airlines do require you to present the credit card at check-in. So far, the only airline that required this was South African Airways.

 

[Yzerbear19]

ABSOLUTELY INCORRECT! I have never had a problem purchasing a ticket on delta.com for someone I wasn't flying with.

I have had countless tickets paid for by someone not flying and I have never had a problem.

That said some airlines do require you to present the credit card at check-in. So far, the only airline that required this was South African Airways.

The information from my post is correct, though it might have been NWA's website that wouldn't let him purchase the tickets. It was a year ago and he said he could not purchase the tickets directly from the site because he wasn't flying. That was what he told me. I thought it was Delta's site, but it could have been NWA's. I know that he ended up getting them from one of the travel sites.

 

[crashbb]

The information from my post is correct, though it might have been NWA's website that wouldn't let him purchase the tickets. It was a year ago and he said he could not purchase the tickets directly from the site because he wasn't flying. That was what he told me. I thought it was Delta's site, but it could have been NWA's. I know that he ended up getting them from one of the travel sites.

Umm...if it wasn't Delta's website then your information is not correct. Not sure how you can state that it was.

For the record, I've often traveled on tickets paid for by someone else (including on United) and never had a problem. Nor have I ever been asked to show the credit card that I bought the ticket with (and least, not that I can remember).

However, I always suggest going to the source (i.e. the airline) especially since an airline worker has pointed out that it can be a problem.