Originally Posted by
Ascii
This doesn't come up for every award ticket. It also appears for revenue tickets, and I believe it's targeted. I've never experienced it, but I know people who have... and they've had to show the card at check-in.
My impression is that this is a common requirement for travel originating in at least some parts of Asia and perhaps elsewhere where there are concens about credit card fraud. Some Asian carriers are notorious for enforcing this strictly, to the point of denying travel in cases where the credit card was lost or stolen and then reported and replaced after tickets were purchased.