milaohu

I booked an award ticket for my cousin, using my BA miles & credit card, flying on AA.

I will not travel with my cousin. But I found that I was required to bring the credit card to the airport according to the confirmation email:
"Please remember you must bring the card used to pay for this booking to the airport with you, for verification, before you can travel.
Your itinerary is detailed below."


I called BA, talked to three agents, and got three different answers.
- The first agent said there was no way to avoid this. I need to bring my card with my cousin when he checked in at the airport.

Since the first agent was very unfriendly, I called again and talked to another agent.
- The second agent said everything was set: I don't need to bring the credit card. The agent said since the ticket was booked using my credit card instead of my cousin's, my cousin will NOT be required to show the credit card used for booking.

Since the two gave me opposite answer, I called again and talked to a third agent.
- The third agent said my cousin would NOT able to check in, even if I would go to the airport with my cousin, because American Airline would ask my cousin to show the creidt card used for booking & would assume the ticket was fraud because the card was NOT under my cousin's name.


Since the third agent said the "show credit card" would be requested by AA agent at the airport while checking in, I called American Airlines.

I talked to three AA agent, two from reservation department, one from AAdvantage department. All of three saying AA would NOT require the credit card to be showed at the airport.

Sure I be assured that the "show credit card at the airport" will NOT be enforced, since AA is the carrier?

I am a little disappointed with BA now, for the very inconsistent answers from agents, always longer waiting time than AA while calling, and less friendly (this one maybe subjective) than AA.

Thanks for any comments.

cbagent

No wonder you are confused!

At the time of booking online you would have been asked the the question .... 'is the payment card holder travelling on this booking? ' .... to which you should have answered no.
This has the effect of setting the booking up as third party which over rides the requirement for payment card to be presented at the airport.

Providing you correctly indicated that the payment card holder is not the travelller then card will not be required at the airport.

Hyperacusis

What is your routing? I have never been asked for my CC when checking in for an AA flight.

milaohu

Thanks for the reply.

I could not remember what I did, but all the three BA representatives said I answered yes to the question: 'is the payment card holder travelling on this booking? '.
The second BA agent said since the traveler was not the card holder, the system would identify that and would NOT ask for the traveler to show the credit card at the airport. The first and third BA agents gave different answers.

I think the important question is: is AA instead of BA the only party that may enforce the 'show credit card at airport'? I think so because AA is the carrier and BA don't even have a office there. Then I should listen to AA agents instead of BA agents, and believe what AA agents told me.

cbagent

If you indicated at the time of booking that card holder was travelling then there is a potential for AA to require the card to be shown at the airport as the booking will show as a first party booking. It is the operating carrier,in this case AA , who would enforce any id requirements surrounding credit card transactions. However the reality is that relatively few passengers are actually asked to present credit card at the airport.
Nevertheless the potential is there and I would suggest you call your ba service centre and tell them that the booking needs to be flagged as third party to avoid any possible problems for the passenger.

milaohu

Thanks for the advice. I actually talked to three BA agents and AA agents, received inconsistent answer from BA, and "you don't need to show the credit card" from AA. Details posted in my original post.

That's why I posted here looking for help from your guys. I feel a lot of buddies here are more professional or at least more willing to help than an agent. ^_^

hindukid

Have the same problem here with a BA miles booking on Cathay. Don't remember any such question about the card holder being present. Seems like BA system should be able to pick upon this as the traveler is obviously different than the card holder. Also I do not believe that there was an option to use anything but the member's card.

Personally I think there is some glitch. Booked in May so probably right around when the OP did.

DBCme

One additional data point:
Redeemed 50k BA miles on a CX flight some months ago. CX agent at SFO wanted to see the card used to make the "purchase." I told her it was an award ticket and only taxes paid. Since it was an old card (churning!), no longer had it. I offered to find an old statement on line, but she was pretty resistant. Only after consult with her manager and me verifying other pieces of information such as ticketing date, did she eventually overlook the credit card requirement.

Only twice in my history of flying...15 years or so, has credit card used for payment ever been requested.

milaohu

Update:
I managed to take half day off and went to the airport with my cousin, but found out nobody asked me to show the credit card.

Well...Hope that helps

angatol

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