Before you throw out those cancelled credit cards . . .
 

I just spent one week in Gran Canary, Spain. I flew British Airways from Miami to London. I checked in on-line and printed my boarding pass at home 24 hours before the flight and was instructed to go to the bag drop with my one bag. When I arrived, I was asked to show the credit card that I used to book the flight. I had cancelled that card three months ago and cut it in half. However, I had it in my wallet (in two pieces) and gave it to the lady. She replied with a smile, I've never seen this before, took a piece of tape and ran it through the computer and said, "it worked."

I did an overnight in Barcelona and flew Vueling from Barcelona to Gran Canary (LPA). Vueling asked to see the credit card that I used to book the flight. I used a Continental Chase card but was recently issued a newer card as Chase had felt there was a security problem. Someone tried to buy gas 100 miles away from my house but the card they used didn't have the three digits on the back of the card, so they issued me a different card. I forgot to bring the old cancelled card. Vueling sent me to the Iberia office where I was told that they could require me to purchase another ticket but I was cleared for the flight.

I worried about the return flight to Barcelona as it was booked as a seperate tickete (a longer story) but when I checked in at the LPA airport, no one asked for the credit card used in purchasing the flight.

As for Gran Canary during Thanksgiving, the temperature was around 77 and 68 for lows but it was windy. Restaurants had some great deals. I had 1/2 chicken, fries and salad for 3.90 Euros, and fish, potatoes, salad and a glass of wine for 7.90 Euros. I rented a lounge chair on the beach for 2.50 Euros. My hotel with a kitchen was $45 a night.

British Airways had everyone on the 747 walk down the stairs and they bused everyone to the airport. I also had to walk up the stairs (outside) to get on the plane from London to Barcelona and it was 32 degrees in London. The wine is still free on BA in economy; I had four on the return flight and the fasten seatbelt sign was on for only the first five minutes of the flight and the last 20 minutes to landing.

There have been several discussions here over the years about requiring a traveler to have the credit card used to book flight in their possession. Your story brings it up once again - and it remains a mystery to me how they can do this (although not disputing your story).

Thousands of people fly every day without the credit card that was used to book the flight - and many of them do not even have access to that credit card. I am talking about business travelers who do not book flight themselves but thru a corporate charge entity, parents booking flights for their kids, etc. I book literally hundreds of flights for my husband each year and he never has the credit card used to book flight with him - sometimes not even an account with that credit card comapny - and we have different last names, so that would not help him. (We use a specific card for air travel for our own account/business expense tracking purposes)

Was this a last minute flight? Did you not notify that credit card company you would be out of your normal charging area? Would there be some other reason that the credit card company or airline might have had you on some security list? I believe there had to be some special situation that caused them to do this.

I had booked the flight over ten months prior to the flight so there is no reason why the funds hadn't been transfered. This appears to be something that foreign airlines--not U.S. airlines are doing. Back in December I flew Bangkok Air and they also asked for the credit card that was used to book the flight. I don't believe I'm on any security list--I walked through the metal detectors in Miami, London, Barcelona and Gran Canary with no problems. I never got the body massage everyone is talking about, although I could have used a back massage. I never saw the body scanner.

Anyway I'm flying Air Pacific to New Zealand around Christmas time and I can't find that cancelled credit card.

I just reread your post and I think the problem is with Chase - they likely put some sort of security alert on your account that showed up when you tried to fly. Might be worth a call to them - it seems to be not a reasonable expectation on the part of a bank or vendor that a person keep cancelled/expired cards. In fact, there is usually some blurb when they are mailed telling you to destroy old cards.

I do have some empathy for your situation - my 20 year old daughter just had her BofA credit card temporarily frozen because she had just booked travel on Peruvian Airlines and PeruRail which caused a security alert/hold on her card - even though she had notified BofA and had been using her card in South America for months.

Can't be all foreign airlines all the time - something spooked someone specific to you. And what we will never know.

Certain foreign airlines have this policy, valid or not. Really not an issue with Chase.

Possibly - but OP says Chase issued a new card because there was "some sort of security problem" - so that may have pushed OP to different security awareness on the card.