The policy, despite it's headaches, was implemented after several cases of fraud that resulted in tickets being booked and then cc holder disputing the charges post-flight. Upon being sent to a collection agency, the collections would be dismissed as the cc holder did not take the flight and claimed they did not know who the names listed on the ticket were. The airline had enough of this and implemented the policy so you could not do this anymore. You can thank the people that decided they could toy with the system.