exwannabe

Because the credit card companies have different rules on fraud disputes depending on whether the transaction was "card presented" or not.

So by mearly seeing the card, the airline lowers the bar on what they have to do to cover themselves by contract with the CC company.

This may or may not be stupid, but it is the CC companies that created the concept that seeing the card partially protects the vendor.

Back on the main topic, I one time got trapped by this. On EVA (dispite several years of status) we had to call into Amex to verify my purchase. Had this failed (supposedly) I would have to recharge the fare and get credited later after all had cleared..