Mastercard Securecode
 

I've had to book a few flights on United in the last few weeks. Now for this reservation I'm being asked to participate in Mastercard's "SecureCode" program where I have to give a bunch of data like last 4 of SSN, billing zip code, etc.

The program seems smart but it's just inviting phishing scams to get the data that is used to ones accounts secure.

Is there any way around this? Why does United use this on some transactions and not the others. It seems rather pointless to me since they're protected by mastercard in the first place.

Actually you're protected by the CC issuer but the airline is not. If you dispute the charge the vendor is on the hook for the cash unless they can prove it is not their fault.

As for getting around it, book by phone should work.

The VISA program like this is run by the credit card not by UA. The credit card back is the holder of the info, not UA. Once signed up, you just need to provide code / password. It seems to be an increase in security, at least for my VISA card.

Its a major nuisance.:mad:

I used to have to enter my Mastercard secure code but the site stopped asking a long time ago