My wife purchased two tickets on ET to fly from Dubai to SEZ, using her Mastercard. Between the time of purchase and the flight our Bank of America replaced our Mastercard because of a major fraud alert which affected thousands of accounts. When my wife and daughter tried to check in for their flight in Dubai they were refused because they did not have the EXACT card used to purchase the tickets. We explained that the cards were destroyed per bank instructions. The agent was presented with the new Mastercard with the same name as the original card and with her photo on the card. The Ethiopian Airlines agent would not accept that card and staunchly refused to discuss it any further. As the flight was boarding and my wife/daughter had a connection in the Seychelles and prepaid hotel rooms at an ultra expensive resort they were forced to purchase new tickets for an additional $1500 USD. My wife was Star Alliance Gold as well. This is a lesson for all to keep all old credit cards including those expired from the time of purchase until the time of the trip. Another lesson learned is we will never book another Ethiopian Airlines flight.

While the situation indeed sounds unfortunate, this is something that Ethiopian stresses to you many times over during the booking process.

Indeed, when making payment on the website, you get the following warning - in block capitals and red font.

You can avoid this issue by booking via Expedia or another OTA, rather than directly with Ethiopian in the future.

There are numerous tales of exactly this woe on FT. There are some carriers which absolutely require the card used to make the purchase. There are other carriers which have procedures in place to permit substitution. Generally speaking these requirements are enforced by carriers and in locations where CC fraud is rampant.

Because the carrier bears the responsibility for the fraudulent use of a CC, it's fair for the carrier to protect itself.

Regretably, what this means is that if you make a purchase for a future service with a card which is later replaced for any reason, you absolutely must contact the carrier immediately and determine whether and what arrangements can be made.

Some will allow you to appear at a ticket office with various forms of ID, some may not care and some will care.

OP's sister's best hope here is that she can coax a refund for the unused ticket out of the carrier.

Yes, we had the card with us with same bank and photo but with different number. This would also be an issue with purchasing tickets well ahead of your trip with a CC that expired prior to boarding. The lesson is to not buy on those specific airline web sites or be so rigid as to never cut up an expired CC or cancelled CC until after all possible flights. The airline was so arrogant as to not even want to work with us to contact the bank in the USA.

Mountainman - On rereading the policy, it's clear that you did not need the same card at check-in, but you did need to go to a ticket office prior to departure and show the "old" card before destroying it.

This is a little less onerous than some carriers which would have required you to hold onto the "old" card travel which could be almost a year away.

Understood but the nearest Ethiopian Airline office is a jaunt. I will take the smart way out in the future and purchase on Expedia or other site.

ET will sometimes accept a scan of the card together with a photo ID and an indemnity form if you cannot make it to a ticket office for whatever reason. They try to be quite helpful, but keep in mind that more tickets purchased with credit cards in Africa are fraudulent than legitimate, so anything out of the ordinary just raises additional red flags.

I would not use a third party site such as Expedia unless you are saving a significant fortune on the ticket. Just don't toss the CC if for any reason it expires or has to be replaced.

I think this circumstance is not unique to Ethiopian. I believe Singapore Air has similar policies to prevent against on line tickets purchased fraudulently.

It's unfortunate as it certainly makes things a lot less convenient.

I booked a ticket for a co-worker on Ethiopian Airlines with my credit card through airfare.com. Am I correct in understanding that there won't be an issue with the CC because I did not book direct with Ethiopian Airlines?

I'd assume that would be correct. I'm flying them during the end of next week - I booked directly with ET whereas others in my party booked via a third party. I can report what I experience after that.

I booked a one way flight with Ethiopian last week online from the UK for Nairobi- Addis Ababa yesterday. When I arrived at check in last night in NBO, I was asked if I had booked online, and said yes. I was asked to go to the ET office in the airport to have my card checked as the reservation was not "open" and I could not be checked in until it was.

As has been mentioned there is possibly a lot of CC fraud, particularly in Africa, so checks may be sensible.

I went to the office where a lady checked the card details against the passport and took a photocopy of them which I was asked to sign (ie same as the signature on the card and in my passport.) The ticket was then "opened", and I went back to check in. This presumably will be what would happen if you went to an ET office Pre-flight as has been mentioned.

I quite often book flights for my employees using my card and will be a bit wary of doing this for these tickets in future as they could be caught out badly. The ET website says the card will have to be presented but I had not found it until looking for it now as I did not recall seeing anything about it during the booking process, the booking email confirmation and e-ticket sent to me had no reference to the requirement to get it Pre-checked etc.

There were three other people there doing the same at the same time whilst I was at the office, British and American, so I suspect it is a thing that affects travellers more than locals - in my very narrow experience

The upshot of this policy though, is that if the card in question is lost or stolen, you have no recourse.

Looks like it, and as I took a trip without my wallet and any cards by accident earlier this week I would have been marooned!

Not sure if they would have taken another credit card if offered though. What they were doing was checking my CC name against my photo ID on passport and same name, and asking me to sign signature - same as passport and CC signature.

Fortunately this week was only within europe and I had a few hundred euros on me. Cars and hotels and flights all prepaid.

If I booked an award flight through United, but I'm flying part of the itinerary on Ethiopian, do you think I'll need the original card I paid the taxes with? I plan on bringing it after reading this, but my trip isn't until Nov 2014, so I hope I still have the card then (not that I have any reason to think I won't...)