E-ticket potential problem....
 

I just made a reservation and bought a ticket for my partner. He and I are travelling separately.

Here's the prob: I bought the ticket, UA will ask for my credit card! THe card will be in my pocket, and I will be on the other side of the country.

Any suggestions?

(SOrry if there has been a previous posting).

Zach

I can't give any guarantees you won't be asked but when I have checked in on E-Tickets I have NEVER been asked to show the credit card the ticket was purchased with.

(Of course now that I have posted this they will probably ALWAYS ask http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif)

[This message has been edited by Baze (edited 07-21-2000).]

Go to your nearest CTO/airport and present the credit card. That should take care of those stupid fraud concerns that United has. Others wishing to purchase tickets for people besides themselves have reported that this works fine for UA.


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Time..... is on my side.

Prepare a copy of both sides of your card, and sign a note on the face of the copy saying that you are the purchaser of the ticket, that you are not in the vicinity, and that your partner is presenting the copy for the purpose of travel.

Or, go to a CTO to have the ticket set up as a PTA (prepaid ticket advice). Your partner can then collect the paper ticket at the airport.

I have been asked on about 40% of my outbound flights to show the credit card I used, so I think the above suggestion's a good one.

You really should go to the ATO/CTO to have the ticket printed to give to your partner. He can be denied boarding by US policy; you would be better safe than sorry by getting it printed for him.

UAChris, that's most likely what I will do. Do you by chance work at the BH CTO? That's where i do my ticketing.

I agree with UAChris. I find that UA asks to see the cc used more often than other airlines. Definitely better safe than sorry.

I think it really depends on where you purchased the e-ticket from. If it was done thru a travel agent, then I don't they UA will ask for the CC. If it was done with UA and not in person (ie phone, maybe even ual.com), then they will ask for it.

I've never been asked on trips done thru my corporate travel but have been asked on trips booked thru UA.

The thing I've noticed is if I've had an eticket done by a travel agent I've never been asked for the credit card. When I purchase via the UAL website I get asked about 75% of the time.

I've been asked 100% of the time for tickets purchased through the website or over the telephone. When I give the wrong card they say nope and ask for the other one (I never remember which I used, there's a 50/50 shot of getting it right). They only ask on the first leg of the flight if it helps. I would second and third all the stuff about getting to a ticket office or an airport to get a paper ticket.

Well, I went to the CTO. They refunded the UAL.COM ticket and issued a new e-ticket. I asked if mp partner would need the card. They said, "As long as we see you CC here at the CTO, you are all set."

zrs70-
No, I don't work at the BHCTO http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Basically, to sum up what everyone else has said, if you purchase the ETKT at a CTO or travel agency, someone has already seen the card, thus we won't ask to see it again. If you buy online or through UA reservations policy is that the credit card used to purchase the ticket as well as the cardholder him or herself must be present only at the first point of checkin. We deny boarding to many passengers each day who do not fulfill this requirement.
Glad to hear everything worked out for you, zrs70!

... that's one of my personal reasons why I avoid e-tickets (with any airline, for me UA, LH, SR) like the pest (it happened that I lost my credit card and it was replaced with a different number!)

other reasons: [*]my flights (out of Switzerland) are only international, and if they include long-haule-flight-segments they start with a LH-flight (some times on LH-flight numbers some times as a UA-code-share-flight-number) from ZRH to a connecting hub in Germany (FRA, DUS, MUC for connecting UA-flights) or Scandinavia (SK: CPH) or others.

The Swissport-agents (=SR daughter company) serving the StarAlliance check-in-counter in ZRH (to make it even more complicated that Swissport=SR run StarAlliance counter is in the responsability of Lufthansa ...) can't get the correct UA-e-ticket-informations on their (LH-system-) screen and that means time-loss in ZRH at check-in, problems with luggage to be checked through, no (change of) seat-assignements (often I might want an emergency-row-seat) for connecting-flights, no-through-boarding-passes to final UA-destination, time loss (sometimes very nasty queing in FRA on short connecting flights), airport-duty-free-shopping-problems. So much for seamless-Alliance travelling ...

Sometimes, on the phone, I forget to ask for a paper-ticket, and it is really time-consuming to ask afterwards for a paper-version - even more if I bought the tickets with my credit-card for third parties - mostly for Gisela, or like yesterday for kokonutz (LHR-DUS-LHR on LH) - I hope that one will not turn out to be an e-ticket http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

or try once getting through airport-security to passport-controle to LH without paper-ticket in Caire, Egypt (I lost a full 90 minutes last time!).

Sorry about the hassles you get, but i for one am happy you need to show a credit card to get on board if no one has seen it.

I dont know CO's policy these days but have been stung a few $000 (got it back!) last year when my credit card was used online and via the phone, and they happily allowed e-checkin as well as normal check-in...of course they didnt have to show the card.

Same goes for reward tickets for other people, UA usually require a fax or visit to a CTO before they issue...CO do it over the phone no questions asked, just the good old PIN number. Security?

I know you have solved this problem. Just wondering, could you not loan the cc to him, and you use another one on your trip?

I have never been asked for my credit card, but I always start my trips in EWR and almost all the RCC attendants there know me.

I have been doing the "long distance" relationship thing for the past 36 months. We fly from ONT to SFO almost every weekend. When I purchase the ticket online, I run into that same problem.

I have tried to go to the ticket office and show my card so she won't be hassled. 20 % of the time, you get a "human" working there who knows the system and actually cares... the rest of the time they tell me it's "not possiable".. when I know it is because it's been done before....

Good Luck...

It all comes down to the person that checks you in and if they want to enforce the rules (do their job).

Yes, If at one point the Credit Card is seen in person at a UAL ticketing location or travel agent, no need to worry.

If you purchased the E-Ticket by phone or internet, be prepared to present it.

In fact, a screen comes up for the check in agent to ask the passenger for the CC.

I brought this topic back up as I don't normally fly United, but I have been asked to buy a ticket for my brother-in-law who is in the Army to fly home for Memorial day weekend. I originally was going to have him fly USAirways, but the schedule didn't work out. I am ready to buy his ticket, but run into this credit card problem. I don't think he has a credit card and I live over 150 miles away from a United CTO or a United airport. Luckily there is enough time, to have a paper ticket issued and mailed to me, but it is a big hassle. I haven't had any problems doing this on TWA or USAirways.

You can keep it electronic. Just go to a CTO or airport and have them swipe your card in advance.

I live over 150 miles away from the nearest CTO or an airport United flies. It is not a simple matter to just swing buy one. The nearest would be Nashville or St. Louis. I probably will not do any air travel this month either. The point is other airlines don't have this restriction.

UA only has the restriction for tickets purchased through them directly (website, phone call). To get around it, just buy the ticket on Expedia.

I ran into a variation of this problem last year, when I'd bought e-tickets well in advance and then had to have my credit card cancelled and reissued because of some attempted fraudulent use. I cut up the old card and didn't have any problems until I was ready to travel -- then I realized I didn't have the old card to show at the airport.

I called UA, and they told me to bring a copy of the credit card statement showing the purchase; I did, and that did the trick. I'm just glad I don't have my credit card statement e-mailed to me -- I don't know if they'd've accepted something printed on plain white paper as being official enough.