Booking United online for business trip..
 

...and using the company corporate business card. I do not have access to the physical card. I just ended the record for my co-worker and in big bold print it says " Bring credit card used for purchase"..well this is a problem. Is it that big of a deal? co-worker does not have the physical card.The card is a business card we all use. If he checks in online and goes to the gate, do you see a problem? Help please!

You can either call your Travel Manager or call United. No matter what we say, it is eventually an airline who makes that call.

i don't think you need the exact credit card but you probably need a credit card in your name. If you check in at the counter you will probably only need some identification and won't need any credit card. If you use Mr. Chicken you will definitely need a credit card because that how you are identified. It just gets your name from the card, not the number. If in doubt, call united and ask.

Go ahead and call. I predict you won't have a problem. With online checkin you just go to the gate, the printout gets scanned, and you board. The Easy Chicken machine will accept Mileage Plus cards, too.

This "Bring the credit card used for purchase" is a really annoying and inconvenient feature for situations in which a person might be buying a ticket for someone else as a gift or for any other reason. Funny how some carriers don't seem to need to do that and others do.

I use my business credit card for buying the ticket on line. When checking in at the kiosk, you swipe your card in the machine so it knows what reservation to pull up.

Occasionally, I will use my personal credit card to swipe, not the one I used to purchase the ticket (just happened to grab the personal one by mistake.) Less frequently, the machine will not read the card, so it asks for another one. Never a problem.

I forgot to say, this is always with United.

I suspect this is a security feature, possibly applied only to first-time users of that credit card with that merchant.

If you use a credit card to buy something lasting from a distant merchant, they can compare the delivery address to the address on the card, which gives them some measure of insuring that you are the actual purchaser. And, of course, the merchandise could be subject to recovery, were the charge invalid.

With a service, such as an airline ticket, there is no delivery, so they can't check the address. And were the charge invalid, they would already have delivered the service by the time it was challenged, so there could be no recovery. Thus, it makes good sense for an airline to want to see the credit card you used before delivering the service.

I know I do not have to show the credit card, but I have a long relationship with the airline I use, so they have a record of my bona fides.

I would definitely check with your travel manager to see what can be done to insure you can make your flight. I know when I worked, our travel department booked all flights for us unless we had an emergency, in which case we used our own card and got reimbursed.

clevelandbrown is right. This is a fraud prevention issue and has nothing to do with kiosk check in. What I don't know is whether UA really enforces it. It may be more of an issue if the flight departure is close to the purchase date. People using stolen credit cards to buy airline tickets don't purchase tickets far into the future ;)

I suspect, but I don't know, that there might be another reason as well. Suppose John J. Smith purchases a ticket. Some other John J. Smith finds out about this and shows up at the airport and wants to board. (Or suppose some speculator buys a bunch of tickets for John Smith, knowing there will be a market for them.) The credit card would be the arbitrer in that case.

After reading Patty and Clevelandbrown, they may be on to something. Maybe I've never had a problem because I've had the card for ages? And flights were usually booked enough in advance such that the true owner, if the card were stolen, would know about it.

Come to think of it, I did buy a ticket for someone once, and I did call the airline. Everything was okay, but I'm sorry I don't recall the details of the the conversation.

In any case, call your airline and they'll tell you what to do. I'm certain it won't be a problem.

Sister2, how did it turn out? I have a similar problem with United, having purchased a ticket for my daughter to fly home from college. I bought it on-line, using the same Visa Mileage Plus card I've used for ages, for the same purpose of flying her home and back to school. But this time, the e-receipt says she needs to show the card, which is an impossibility. United insists I have to drive to the airport myself to clear this up. A huge inconvenience. Did you get your problem resolved satisfactorily with United? I'm still working on mine, and getting nowhere. They insist she has to show the card, or I have to drive to the airport. The first is impossible, the second is a half-day pain in the neck for me.