MDFFlyer

Hi guys,

I bought my gf a plane ticket on COPA last year but had problems buying the ticket for her with my credit card as the pax name and cc name obviously didn't match. So, I had to use OTA such as orbitz to get around this.

However, I recently just bought a plane ticket YUL-CDG for my parents on AC from their website (non-OTA) with my credit card. In this case, the pax and cc names don't match.

This got me thinking. When do airlines accept that the cc and pax names be different?

Thanks!

scottpenderson

That's strange that you would be blocked from purchasing a ticket if the names don't match. Do you live in the US? I wonder if it is a type of fraud protection on COPA or their credit processors part.

I can only offer personal experience from when I was in school and didn't have a credit card. If I wanted to book a flight, I would use my parents credit card and reimburse them rather than use my debit card. While my dad and I have the same last name, my mom kept her maiden name so our names do not match. I never encountered problems booking flights on any US based airlines and their codeshares using her card, even if it was an international itinerary.

fassy

Mainly Airlines from or ticket sales to/from countries with a high risk of credit card fraud have a policy that the pax had to book the ticket on his personal card - and in a lot of cases you have to produce the physical card during check-in at the airport.

I have seen this in South East Asia, Africa and South America. Never had problems in the US or Europe, as long as the charge clear they don't care who is the pax.

Often1

This is an anti-fraud measure which is generally only in place where there are indications of fraud. These can be based on location and also on other specific factors.

There is almost always a means of circumventing this by making the purchase via telephone and faxing in an image of the card and ID or somesuch.

Call the carrier and ask for help.

Wellington

Delta does this here when flying out to the Dominican Republic. I bought a pair of tickets for my mom and grandma and got a notification saying I had to present the CC before they could board. They said I could do it at any Delta station at any airport, they were flying out of JFK so a couple of days before their flight I went out to the much closer LGA and presented the reservation and card.

It's a pain in the butt. I have seen a lot of people just not even be able to get on the flight. IMO they have no one to blame but themselves, there was a pop up when I booked with Delta stating that the card must be presented.

Indelaware

I have successfully purchased airline tickets for other passenger traveling across the globe including those doing trips on local airlines wholly within the second/third world.

Most airlines which claim to require that credit card match passenger do not really require that. What they really require is that passenger be able to produce at the airport the document specified in the FOID (Form of Identification) field on the PNR. This field defaults to credit card number, but a good travel agent (or airline ticket agent) can enter other data - e.g. passport number. Note the FOID filed is separate and apart from the passport data fields.

Most airlines require that the agent selling the ticket have inspected the FOID. Clearly changing the FOID field is not applicable when dealing with online travel agents, one with those with whom one has a human-to-human relationship.

MDFFlyer

Thanks, this is what I thought.

Thanks all for the input!