WelshSarah

My sister arrived from Wales yesterday by the skin of her teeth, love her!!

Her company paid for her flight weeks ago, no problem. She gets to the check in desk at Heathrow only to be told that as the card holder wasnt travelling with her they werent allowed to pay for her ticket!!

To cut a very long and stressful story short, she had to use all her spending money to purchase a new ticket there and then!! They reinbursed the companys money but she travelled with a tenner!!

I dont know if others have experienced this but beware if youve let someone book for you and you give them the money.... It could bite you on the bum so to speak!!

The Bloke

Name and shame the airline, so others can be aware of which one to query? Or was it the idiot behind the desk that got their wires crossed.

Gems

Bloomin hell, she must of had one stressful flight.

We had our MIL book our flights with her credit card and she has different name to us.(she remarried)

However we had no problems getting on British Airways or Singapore Airlines flights. Thankfully, Id have freaked if it happened to us.

Yes, name the airline so others can avoid the same thing happening.

Gems

Pollyana

If it was an official company booking then it sounds like a stuff-up at check in. I book flights daily at work for colleagues using a card in my name, as do fellow support officers. Never had a problem with anyone, its accepted business practice.

Equally, I've booked flights using a credit card issued in my maiden name, when I travel on my married name (cos thats the name on my passport).

Kalenge

Surely there must have been some other issue??? It's a very standard practise for flights to be booked by company credit cards.

Companies that I've worked for and my current company have always booked flights in this way, and I've never known it to be a problem.

bcworld

Singapore airlines is pretty strict regarding the fact that the credit card has to be shown at check in. Can be a problem when you book flights far in advance and the credit card subsequently expires and you cut it up.

I've heard of people having to get written confirmation from the credit card company to show at check in.

Clearly corporate bookings are not often made on the travellers personal card, but the credit card rule may just apply to tickets booked on the airline's website?? Corporate travel isn't normally booked this way.

moneypenny20

It's always been normal practice and generally says so in the small print that the booking isn't valid if the credit card holder isn't travelling in the party. It's just a security measure to attempt to prevent your card being stolen and flights being booked with it. (Doesn't work terribly well in practice as can be confirmed by Glittababe). With respect to the company credit card - that definitely sounds like a cock up.

Pollyana

Depends where you are booking and company rules. Qld Govt travel - which is fairly hefty - is booked mainly through websites, and a lot of it is done using credit cards in the names of various employees. That applies to both domestic and international.
The company really is at fault for not supplying the right documentation for ensuring that she could travel. They booked the flight, they should have checked out the rules when they worked out the best method of payment.

Centurion

I regularly pay for other peoples fights on my card. No problems.....

SillyOldBag

I think its the BA online booking service that asks as one of the questions whether or not the credit card holder is travelling, so I presume it wouldn't be a problem with them.

Awful for your sister though justsarah -what a start to her trip! Lucky she had the finance to be able to buy another ticket, hope she gets reimbursed quickly!

moneypenny20

That's nice but what do you do about flights

MartinLuther

Is it anything to do with an e-ticket? I thought you needed the booking credit card for them when you got to the airport. May be wrong as it's been a while.

Vanessa

Emirates definitely have this policy http://www.emirates.com/au/english/s...of_Credit_card
and I believe that Singapore do to. Our 'boy' has been back to the UK twice and we couldn't use these airlines as we paid for his ticket and were not travelling. Qantas and Malaysian were ok.

chris and farideh

My OH travelled for 3 months back & forward from Adelaide to Brisbane; his company paying for it never did he have any problems.
Back in UK he use to travel around the world & his company paid for it again he didn’t have the problem, maybe its new thing.

CharleneG

This is not going to get any easier.

Today marks the official death of the paper airline ticket.

Anyone can show a copy of an e-mail to check in with, the airlines need to decide what the rules are and all enforce them.
How can they tell a company booking from any other on a website? There have to be allowances for people paying for somene else's ticket.

The airline is just covering itself against a chargeback (i.e loss of payment) if the transaction turns out to be fraudulent. If the customer was forced to use chip and pin to confirm the payment or an internet version of it then they would be covered for any fraud loss.

To make someone pay for a ticket in full again is as ridiculous as the fees the airlines charge if you make a typo on your booking and they declare they have to reissue a ticket because you have typed someone's name wrong or it is not exactly the same as it is on their passport.

Charlene