Can (and will) BA stop you flying?
 

So, for reasons I won't bore you with, my credit card is not in the same country as me.
No problem. I know the numbers and CCV and such.
I can shop and buy things successfully on the internet.

So I buy a BA ticket.

And in the email I get it says "please bring the card you paid with to the airport"
<sigh>......

So, really... how often are people asked to show their credit card?
And can they really reject you if all the information across their system and your passport matches and they've actually taken your money?

In all my years of flying, it happened only once with Turkish Airlines. No other airline has ever done this. But the possibility exist. And I am happy it exists as I already had my CC number used to book a same day ticket (so before I could even see it online), and I would have loved the airline to ask for the creditcard (number was probably stolen in a restaurant)

Without more details such as the country of ticket origin, country where card issuer (bank) is located, country where you are resident, and card currency, it is hard to answer your question.

Suffice it to say that if you have been asked to produce the card, it is because your purchase has tripped BA's anti-fraud or anti-AML systems and part of verifying that the passenger really is you is for you to show the card. BA most assuredly will deny you boarding without proper verification.

It would help immensely if you provided some detail as this may be very rare or not depending on the circumstances.

From the UK rare, in other places very possible

I'm English. English Passport. Using an English bank.
However I'm currently in China and am doing a China>Uk>China trip over Christmas.

Ticket purchased directly on ba.com.

A bit confusing because you said that the card is in a different country. I now take it that you mean you left the physical card elsewhere.

Call BA immediately and make alternative arrangements. Worrying about how often it occurs or why it occurred won't help you past this.

My card expired while I was away.
My new card is sat in the UK waiting for me to collect it next time I'm back.
Not so complex actually :)

However I'm concerned about 'rocking the boat' and putting myself on their radar when that might actually cause issues, when for all I know, I might get to the airport and no one will say a thing about showing my bank card !!

Honestly, my card 'should' be fedex'ing it's way over here to me, but then a problem occurred with that delivery!!! (Never rains but it pours)
It could still get here but I'm just looking into what might happen if it doesn't.

Delta recently wanted me to bring the credit in with me to check in for a particular foreign flight. Never mind that the ticket was in my name and I have used that card for thousands of $$ in flights on Delta. The trigger was the return country.

On more than one occasion flying out of TLV I have been made to show the relevant credit card at check in for the first leg of a multi-sector ticket. This was both when I resided in the UK and latterly in the US. The way the request was made seemed to suggest that, at least in TLV, it was normal procedure.

Well that might confuse everbody, as it would be a first!

But to answer your question, I have only once ever had to show the credit card used for the booking and that was at HAM about 15 years ago.

Just to be pedantic, there is no such thing as an English passport, any more than there is a Scottish or Welsh passport. And it's quite possible that your bank isn't actually English, either.

Dunno how it works with your bank, but in the decades I've been with mine, and multiple card expirations and new ones being issued, not once have I ever had to call anyone and activate a new card.
My sister simply told me the pertinent details on my new card and that's that. Used it to buy stuff online with no issues from any other website.
Anyway, we're getting off the point.....
I don't have that new card with me :D

So, I think I'll give fedex a couple more days to sort their stuff out. After that, it seems like it might be a good idea to call BA and explain that my card is not with me.
But at this point, giving them a warning is no longer gonna be 'well in advance'