How stupid
 

A friend, booking trips for his family from a couple of UK destinations, was told by customer service that, because of EK's credit card holder being present requirements, he would need to be in London and Manchester at the same time!

Is it 1st April?

According to the ek.com booking page, when booking ex UK , the credit card rules are shown as

So, unless the CC holder is one of the passengers, the credit card should not be needed and would seem that customer service may be incorrect

The cardholder is one of the passengers departing London. His relative, for whom he is paying, is departing Manchester.

So, the credit card holder is not travelling on the Manchester trip. So, not CC is required...

I noticed recently that when booking on emirates.com ex-uk that the passenger name was being forced into the cardholder box at the CC payment page. This is usually done when the cardholder must be present and was not previously a feature ex-uk.

It may not be reflected in the text quoted above, but EK are not known for being on the ball as regards updating things like this on their website.

This is not stupidity it is to prevent fraud.

And yet most other airlines seem to manage without such restrictions.

His problems began when booking via the EK website, I quote

"It would let me book, but she and I would have to produce the same credit card when checking in. A bit of a challenge when she is in MAN and I am in LHR at the same time."

This was confirmed by EK customer services.

The solution was to book via a travel agency or similar.

if just the credit card is required, credit companies send out new ones to replace lost/damaged ones... the card number remains the same just the valid/expiry dates change

not true for debit cards though

So should be problem then unless he doesn't have the card at all

Where the cardholder is one of the passengers , the card is required
Where the cardholder is not one of the passengers, no card is required

From manchester, there is no issue since his is not one of the passsengers and so the card will not need to be presented
From London, since he is one of the passengers, he will need to present it -- which I assume is not a problem for him

Storm in a teacup

I assume that , like BA, where the cardholder is not travelling, when the booking is made, the airline does more checks on validity of card

That's not true for AMEX cards either

I had an AMEX card replaced due to the stripe not reading very well and the new card had a new card number

The 12th digit of the AMEX card number is a card sequence number which is incrememented whenever a card is replaced for being lost/damaged/stolen , so that number changes and so the final digit will change since it is a checksum digit

Not uncommon for airlines to ensure this.

My friend was denied boarding by SQ for not having the credit card she had present with her that was used to book the ticket. This was a few years ago. And the credit card was under her name.

CX also enforces this, and once I was told the alternative was for credit card holder to visit the local office before traveling so that the staff can verify the payment.

However for online bookings that use the SMS verification it is not needed anymore (was told by the CX agent on the phone).

Can't imagine lost cards retaining same number.

My replacement cards always get new numbers. Only expired ones retain same numbers and get new expiration date

With my bank, lost cards generate a new number, but when cards are damaged (usually due to over-use) a replacement with the same number is dispatched.

oh my bad, makes sense lost cards would get new numbers, I thought they would keep them the same for those annoying recurring payments (like AA/RAC membership).

My MBNA cc chip stopped being recognised, contactless payments were fine though, so I was sent a replacement last week, it has the same number.

I still have my expired Barclay's debit card I held onto as I thought I'd need to show the card at check-in, still haven't got rid of it!

I have to call EK soon for this very reason. Lost the card I used to purchase so need to figure out what to do but am waiting for the replacement card to arrive. Flight's not until the end of March, but the current fare is higher than when I bought. I called UA today for a flight I have on Saturday and they confirmed with airport staff that I didn't need to show it. Strangely, they said I could present any credit card. Wouldn't they just want my ID.