Well, I'm sure UA and the other airlines suffered a rash of fraud when all this started, which invoked the "showing the credit card" issue. In temporary defense of UA here (not excusing the incident at the top of this string), they probably had a serious dispute with the credit card issuers re: chargebacks. And the photo ID of the traveller isn't sufficient, because if my friend, eg, buys me an eticket, and it's a stolen card, well, my name appears on the tix, on the ID, but there's no recourse. Showing a credit card, while not necessarily preventing fraud, is probably a measure that was negotiated between the card processing companies / card issuers, and UA.

You will note that this "rule" does not apply to agency-issued etickets, because the airline AND credit card issuer go back on the agency if proper procedures are not followed.

Now with respect to the 1K/1P exception, this makes lots of sense. UA has tons of recourse over us if we fly on a fraudulently-obtained ticket.

In further support of UA on this policy, they have, on the few occasions I have charged an etix over the phone, told me I needed to have the CC, which they have never checked.

Having been the victim of credit card fraud on 3 occasions (1st, an employee of a merchant I visited stole my info after charging something; 2nd, someone made an actual credit card with my info, while the real one never left my wallet, and 3rd, a neighbor stole my mail, changed my address, and so on, ordering thousands of dollars of travel, which did not "trigger" the system [the other 2 times, the system "triggered" for verification, and charges were blocked], the ONLY thing that caused me to find out quickly was that the tour operator sent the vacation package to the address of the credit card used, notwithstanding the thief's attempt to change the mailing address (she pretended to be my wife). She purchased a Lexus with someone else's credit. She now has a felony record.

All to say, I have no problem with the UA policy, but it needs to be enforced "reasonably", and those of us who could lose a million miles or our status... well, their proper discretion will keep us as customers.

[This message has been edited by Eastbay1K (edited 12-29-1999).]