Just a story, nothing more and nothing less.

I have been flying LAX to Bkk several times on CX, and every time they told me when I booked with the CX agent over the phone - you must show your Credit Card when you check in. Ok, but in about 5 prior trips in which they never asked, I got a bit casual about it.

But recently, when I checked in at LAX, the agent asked me to show my credit card. I showed it to him and he said "do you have another credit card?" At that moment, panic set in. I had totally forgotten that several months earlier, after I booked the ticket, my CC was compromised, and my bank had issued me a new one - same account but of course different number. My bad.

He then said - please follow me - and I stepped behind the counter and followed him. The first door had a code and we entered, no problem. But then we came to a second door, with a guard there. Now I am worried - he said something to the guard and I thought this is it - I will never see my friends or family again.

But in fact we entered a big room with a bunch of cubicles. He asked me to sit down at one, and please show him the charge on my CC for the ticket. Again, no problem. But as we all know now, if you try to access your bank account from a remote computer, they want to know why. My bank said, we will send you a code on your phone and you can access your bank account. The problem is that it is not instantaneous - it takes a few minutes.

So while we are waiting for the code, I am looking at him, thinking "will I get on my flight to HK?" He is looking at me, thinking - "have I finally caught a scammer?

After a few minutes the code came through and I was able to show him the statement with the charge on it. He then turned to someone nearby and said "$1500". She then said (in a voice much too loudly in my opinion) "ECONOMY?". He said yes, and I was in. He walked me to the front, we said our fond farewells, and I made my flight.

This is not a complaint about CX - they told me on my booking that I needed to show the CC. The young agent was always very polite. But as most Americans now know, debit/CC card fraud has become an epidemic - millions of cards have been reissued because of hackers.

But on the long flight to Hong Kong I was thinking - when I booked I put in my passport number, and I had my passport with me at check in - why didn't he just asked me for my passport? Much more reliable these days than a CC/debit card? Passports can be stolen, but my guess is much less frequently. Are there that many people who book a ticket 5 months in advance, then use a fake CC. Maybe they re trying to stop resellers??