Credit Card at check-in?
 

My daughter will be flying home on Continental from college for Thanksgiving. Yea!!!!
How does she check in w/o the credit card used for purchase? I just don't remember if the kiosk check in machines have the option for pressing "no credit card".

Thanks!!!

My experience has been that anything with a magnetic strip is what they're looking for in order to pull up the reservation. If she doesn't have anything with a magnetic strip (even our AZ driver's licenses now have it), then just ensure she has the reservation number and yes there is another option other than "cards."

For Continental (not the same across all airlines), all you need for check-in at a kiosk at the airport is one of the following:

- the 6-digit PNR
- her OnePass number if it's in her reservations
- <b>any</b> credit card in the same name as the on the reservation

She doesn't need the credit card for purchase, except in certain special situation - like if the ticket was booked very close to travel.

But why check-in at the airport? Do <b>online check-in</b> with one of the following:

- 6-digit PNR
- OnePass number
- full e-ticket number

Oh, yes, any ID/DL or passport with magnetic strip will work at the kiosk too, as patandhank says:

http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...s/default.aspx

Thanks all for your replies!!
rkkwan, she will be checking in online--she doesn't have a credit card, does have a DL so I guess she will just have to check her bag at the counter. Thanks for that link. I was looking for that yesterday but couldn't find it.

These questions come up all the time as holidays approach and families purchase tickets for others. I have several family members for whom I purchase tickets on a semi-regular basis and some do not have same last name as I. Husband travels at times using tickets purchased by clients - they never have his credit card.

No problems at on-line or in person check in, ever.

And one thing to add to your &quot;to do&quot; list - unrelated to travel necessities for this trip - from mom of 2 kids in colleges 1000 miles away from home. Get her a credit card. You can get her her own if you co-sign. Or even faster, ask your credit card company to issue her one on your account. Useful for emergencies, not limited to travel. One less thing for you to worry about.

Not sure what you mean that she'll have to check her bags at the counter. The only place to check bags is at the counter, but there is no need to wait in the normal checkin line.

If she checks in online she'll have the 6 digit reservation number (PNR) printed on the boarding pass. She can just enter those 6 digits into the airport kiosk to print/reprint boarding pass, and to get luggage tags printed out. There is a counter by the kiosks with an agent, ready to slap the tags on the luggage for her.

And to take her baggage fees.

From what airport will she be flying?

Greensboro. I don't think she will have any trouble being it's such a small airport. I just don't want to get a frantic call from her that she can't figure out how to check her bags. Plus she'll only have less than an 90 minutes once she gets to the airport as she has to take a shuttle to get to the airport that only leaves at certain times.

Christine,

I second Gail's advice about getting your DD a credit card; we had cc's for our college children, connected to our account, with a small limit (maybe $500). It bought us a lot of peace of mind for emergencies, and helped with the airpost situation you describe above. It was also helpful since we could send them shopping on errands and not have to dig around for cash. It was never abused, and when they graduated and moved onto jobs and cc accounts of their own, we cancelled the cards. One peace of mind incident I recall is when both daughters took a trip to Mexico, had a flight delay, and they needed to spend the night at an airport hotel. The cc was very useful then.

socal. How did child having a cc help at the airport? The advice here is that cc is not needed at the airport, and my experience is the same.

I was seconding Gail's suggestion about a cc in case of emergencies; for my daughters, having the cc helped on a trip, when they were stuck at the airport and needed to use it for a hotel. I thought I was clear about that.

I'd call Continental in advance and ask.

About 18 months ago when I checked in for a flight, I was asked for the CC I had used to purchase the tickets. It was a card I had cancelled so I did not have it.

I was removed from line and taken to another counter. Upon further investigation, they saw I had booked the flight many months earlier. Because of that long time lag they said there was no problem and the credit card could not have been stolen by me. If I had stolen it, it would have been reported already. But they said if I had bought the tickets more recently (they gave no time specifics) I could have been denied the flight if I could not produce the card that had purchased it.

On the next leg of the flight, I witnessed a guy and his family being turned away from boarding because he had only his tickets and not the credit card used for purchase. They were a distraught bunch. On that flight I did not have the credit card, but the flight had been booked by a travel agent as part of my entire itinerary.

Each of the above flights involved international travel, but I was departing the US when I was removed from line.

It's not like I ever stole a credit card or anything. I never have had any legal problems so that I'd be tagged as needing more scrutiny.

I've heard quite a few reports that United will ask for the CC used to purchase the ticket if the ticket is recently purchased. I don't remember what the cut off is, or if it's case-by-case.

However, I have never heard of Continental doing the same. It certainly still can happen, I assume, if the ticket is purchased same day, or within a few hours of flight. But that doesn't apply to the OP.

No reason to call CO at all. I've flown on tickets purchased with my parents' cards on CO; my parents have flown many many times on tickets purchased with my card. Both for years. Never never an issue.

What Ray said.
90 minutes is fine - tell her to check in online the evening prior (can do it 24 hours before flight time) and print her boarding pass so she has something with the record locator (six characters, may be letters, numbers or both.) During the OLCI process it will ask if she plans to check bags - doesn't really matter what she answers, she can always change her mind.
When she gets to the airport she will go to a CO kiosk, use the touchscreen to call up the reservation using the record locator. She may need to swipe her DL. One step in the process will ask if she is checking bags, and how many. She enters that info and the system automatically prints out bar coded luggage tags for the agent to apply to the bag.
Some CO airports have kiosks specifically used for checking bags by those who have already done OLCI, making it even easier.

Gail: Good suggestion about getting her a CC--I'll run it by my husband.
Seamus: I'm for sure having her check in on-line. I do it whenever we fly. Last time she flew w/me I'm telling her you have to do everything as if I'm not here cuz the next time you fly it'll be on your own!! She's my first baby bird to leave the nest so I'm just not used to her not relying on me for everything ya know!!?

Christine65 - I third the suggestion about giving your daughter a cc. I have two kids in college; one living at home with me and the other in Iowa (I'm in CA). I gave them authorized user cards (not joint account holders) for my American Express account. They've had the cards for about a year and a half now and they've both been really good with them. They know that they can use them for school-related things, like books. But, they also call and let me know if they're charging someone more expensive (like tuition or parking). They also call to ask if they can use it on rare occasions for things like when they want to go and eat with friends and don't have money, stuff like that.

It's not only put my mind at ease for emergencies, but it's really been convenient. When my daughter needed a new tire for her car, I was able to tell her to just go ahead and use the AMEX card and take care of it. I also send her to Costco to buy groceries and just put it on the card.

The best part is that I'm earning Hilton points on all of our purchases! :-)

On Continental she should be able to check-in 24 hrs prior to her trip, print here boarding pass. Then the keosk will read the bar code on the boarding pass.
hope this helps Jaye

And if she prints boarding pass at school and has no checked luggage, she can just go to security line - no need to stop at ticket counter area - a huge time saver at this busy travel time.