Traveler56789

I’m flying from the USA to AUH in a few months (round trip). I purchased my flight with air Canada miles. And I’m about to purchase my wife’s flight (exact same flight as me) with $ on my credit card.

I’ve been reading some horror stories on Flyertalk about issues when booking a flight for someone else and EY asking to see the credit card at check in and/or cancelling the reservation due to suspected fraud.

I’ll be traveling with my wife on the exact same flight, but not on the same itinerary. Is there any risk in using my credit card to buy her flight? I will be sure to bring the card with me on the trip. I guess my main (possibly unfounded) fear is that they could cancel the ticket before we get to the airport because it wasn’t booked on her cc and I’m not on her itinerary.

I could use one of her credit cards for the purchase, but it’s an expensive J fare so hoping to use this purchase to score a sign up bonus on a new credit card.

BigDaz

If your travelling together, then I don't see any issue as you might be asked to present the card on check-in and you will have it.

If your concerned then once you book I would reach out to them on twitter or call them and let them know. I booked someone else using my credit card a few months back and did this and they had no issues, I was also not travelling with them.

Greenpen

I don’t think you’ll have a problem unless your mistress sees your credit card statement and freaks out that you don’t pay J for her!

csdf

In my experience, you get forewarning about this, because your ticket confirmation will include a request that the original credit card (or a signed copy) has to be provided at check-in. This has only happened to me once in 150+ flights with EY (I didn't pay any attention to it, and got caught out). You can print out a photocopy of your credit card and write underneath (with signature) that you approved the use of the card for her flight. Then she can carry that with her.

stargold

You'll receive a separate email after booking, in which they ask you to email a clear scan of the card to a specific email address in advance of the flight. Once you do, they will reply again and confirm that no further verification will be required.

Note that this is only an issue for bookings directly through Etihad - if you book through a travel agent, they don't care as it's not their risk.

xobile

and in this case, Air Canada is the ‘travel agent’ of sorts, so OP is doubly fine

stargold

I may have misunderstood, but I read OP's message as saying that he already has a redemption ticket issued by AC, but he's planning to buy a cash ticket for his wife - in this case, CC verification will depend on where you buy the cash ticket from.