Credit card transactions are the responsibility of the merchant. Chunkchachunk embossing, signature, ID verification, chip and signature, chip and pin, if you can produce a merchant agreement where the merchant isn't on the hook for the charge between the bank/clearinghouse/brand/whatever and the merchant, I'll eat my hat. The Merchant Is On The Hook is rule #1 of CC processing since for literally ever. Rule 1(a) is the bank/clearinghouse/brand/whatever approving the request isn't a final and unimpeachable approval. No one has ever said that. See rule 1: the merchant is on the hook.

Rule #2 is the card holder has, after their bill arrived, something like 15, 30, month days, 45, 90 or 180 days to dispute the transaction. Rule 2(a) is that the bank/clearinghouse/brand/whatever will, up to some price threshold, give the CC holder their first dispute for "free".

Everyone is mostly honest, and most of the time, this mostly works. Merchants getting what is only mostly there money "quickly" most of the time, at the risk of 180 days later that cash being taken away, consumers getting unsecured credit at 20% is there choice, the bank/clearinghouse/brand/whatever in the middle printing cash for shareholders, well, mostly works.

I grant, and point out loudly, the issue of it being maybe essentially impossible to buy a plane ticket without a credit card is a distinct problem, and it being a problem is that, not proof the CC process is actually demonstrative of anything.. This grant only further enrages me, knowing how the CC clearing process is "statistically mostly works" enough for people who want to make profit, not some idea of "actual confirmed ID and funds transfer" that both you and the criminal/intelligence investigatory world thinks it is.