moe8555

I booked a flight for a friend using my card and noticed a message upon completion of the booking that the card may need to be presented at the airport.

This was not displayed anywhere else prior to completing the booking, and had I known that this may be required, I would have found a different way to book.

Do they ever actually request to see the card in reality, or is this a standard message with little real-world significance?

headingwest

This is a standard message that is used by most airlines, but in all my years of flying I have never been asked to show my payment card.

Obviously this is to prevent fraud, just in case there are any suspicions by the check-in agent, to enable them say ''the booking clearly shows that you should be able to show your payment card.'' That way they can deny check-in if they do have genuine reason to believe the card used for making the booking was stolen. It's best if you have it, but the chances they will ask for it are extremely low.

Before Covid-19 I was flying about 50-60 flights a year, and not once have they asked to see my card. Maybe others here have different experiences, but I doubt it.

moe8555

​​​​​​Thank you for your report. Were all of your trips booked on your own card, or also using others' cards?

Carpacchio

I only had the case once when flying from Singapore to Hong Kong with Singapore Airlines: my wife booked her ticket with her credit card, and was asked at check-in to produce it. Obviously, she had left it at home (since I was with her and paid for everything), and this caused quite some trouble: we needed to get into a separate room and proof with various documents it's her. In the end no problem, but took about 15 extra mins.

headingwest

Mostly using my card, but I have on various occasions booked using my parents' cards (they knew about it of course )

paperwastage

It's rare but can happen

Depending on the airline, some of these steps may help
1) go to airport or airline agent office before trip with physical credit card, ask them to pre-verify the card
2) at checkin and asked to provide card (but cannot provide), sometimes they allow you to substitute with another card (basically refund to old card, charge same amount to new card you have physically, no additional fees)

Again, these are ymmv. Sometimes #2 isn't offered and you get nothing https://thepointsguy.com/2015/12/no-...mistake-story/

KLouis

Given that the majority of my business trips were booked and purchased by a variety of international agencies or institutions, often based overseas, I had this kind of check happening to me a few times (I'd say less than 5%, never A3). The first time was at check-in for a Swissair flight at ATH, and they promptly believed my "story". They told me that carrying a copy of the CC in question would help in the future and it did indeed, except on one occasion, a TK trip to Chicago, again at the initial check-in at ATH, when they did not like the bad quality faxed copy of the CC. I asked to speak to their local manager who obviously said that everything was OK when I told him that I would simply cancel the whole trip and they would have to face the "financial and other consequences".

Knobbgb

I've had this just a few times out of hundreds of flights. It seems to be mostly Asian airlines that have this requirement but Turkish, in particular, comes to mind. I used to use my father's card a lot but I was never asked to show it (luckily). I haven't seen it in 4 or 5 years and NEVER in Europe.

GUWonder

I've been asked to show the credit card used to book flights in Europe some times, including when flying BA intra-Europe out of ARN. But it's been several years at least since I was last asked to show the cards used for payment. But mostly this kind of thing is route/region-dependent and varies from airline to airline in my experience.

Booking via one of the big online travel agencies reduces the chances of this happening.

:D!

In the late 2000s to early 2010s, CX almost always asked for the card until the introduction of VbV, MC Securecode and similar online authentication methods.

The card did not have to be presented at the time of check-in although usually that was the easiest time to show it - the card could be shown at most CX ticketing offices / counters any time after booking

AlwaysFlyStar

I have had my current email address since 2015, and I just saw that Aegean has been putting this message on the booking confirmations since at least 2015. I have never been asked and don't know anybody else who has ever been asked for this by Aegean. I have flown a fair amount, over the years, and the only time I was ever asked was when I was in uni and my mum booked me a flight to visit her on Korean Air with her card. She had to go to the airport and sign some form in person with them to confirm it. Otherwise, this is a very common thing to mention in the booking forms, but very rare to actually implement, particularly these days with the security features used in online transactions.

CALMSP

quite frequent in DOH with QR demanding to see a CC, but, its generally only for those traveling to India or SE Asia.

ok2uselane

Several years ago, I had an issue with not having the same card, with Kenya Airways, in NBO. Fortunately, I had printed all my documents, including receipts... It took an extra 30 minutes of them researching and verifying my docs, but everything worked out. It's rare, but it happens.

Repooc17

Always flying in India.

donard

When connecting in ICN arriving from Canada, going on to another Asian city (probably SIN) OZ or someone wanted to see the cc I had used. It was a card that I did not bring with me when travelling. This was well over 10 years ago. Eventually we just looked helpless, said we did not have it, and asked "what now?".

Someone had a bit of a think about it, and decided it would not be sensible to prevent these 2 people leaving ICN on the flight they were booked on, rather than trap them airside in a connecting airport. I had a *G card, probably from AC, at the time. So the individuals would be likely to get into trouble if they trapped a good customer of a *A airline airside at a connecting point.