Beware of United Airlines outrageous requirement regarding on-line credit card purchase
 

The other night I used United.com to purchase a one-way fare to our home airport in Colorado, using my Visa credit card. This is how I have been purchasing tickets on United.com for over ten years. As long as United's been on-line I have used my Visa to pay airfare for different members of the family to fly home and away.

But, when I read the e-ticket receipt carefully, I noticed a new line: "Bring the CREDIT CARD used for purchase AND a valid photo ID to check-in." Thinking this must be wrongly stated, I called United.

This began a very tortuous one hour on the phone with United's people at web support, and then at its reservation service. It is actually a United requirement that the passenger present the Visa card. Even though it was crystal clear in the electronic purchase process that the payer and the billing address is Colorado, yet the passenger's name is different and the passenger is in a city other than Denver.

Really ridiculous. How hard would it be for the website to recognize this situation and post a pop-up warning to this effect? Nowhere in the purchase process was I advised of this. If I had known, I could have easily used another Visa card, one which the passenger also has. It would have been a very simple thing to do during the purchase process.

But now, it is set in stone. I was told by five different United representatives, including two supervisors (to whom I was VERY reluctantly transferred) that this is an unbreakable rule.

I was given at least four different explanations: 1. it's a random selection, executed during the purchase process by United's computer (read "faulty programming"); 2. it's because the credit card is in one city and the passenger is in another (now that makes sense!!); 3. I must have typed in the wrong three-digits from the back of the card (oh, jeez, but United still accepts the payment, even if it might be an illegitimate purchase); 4. it's a new Visa requirement (blame-the-other-guy strategy).

United's web support people told me to call reservations. Reservations told me to call web support. No one suggested I call United customer service, which I will do ASAP. But they don't open till after the holiday, and airfare prices will be much higher by then.

The only "solution" I am offered by these five reps is that I have to take the card and my own ID to the nearest airport, to verify the purchase (because United closed all its customer service locations in cities years ago, when it truly abandoned any ruse of providing Customer Service). Or, to overnight my Visa credit card to the passenger-- but my name is on the card, not hers. So that wouldn't help, now would it, United?

They present this "solution" as though it is perfectly reasonable. For me, it means a half-day ordeal with driving, parking, standing in line at the airport, and explaining the situation for the umpteenth time. Not to mention paying gas and parking fees. All this is presented as a perfectly acceptable way to treat United customers.

To make the process more unpleasant, of course, each of the reps I spoke to was in India and had a very heavy accent. So it was extremely difficult to understand them, and vice versa. Each rep very politely, very firmly and robotically repeated the "solution" and refused to let me speak to a supervisor.

What if we lived a further distance from DIA, like up in the mountains? What if we lived in Wyoming, and Denver is our nearest airport?? We would still be expected to drive to the "nearest airport." One rep even asked me how far away is Aspen airport!!

My request to United seems much simpler than their "solution" to me. I ask that they simply let me re-purchase the ticket, using another Visa card. Now, that's a reasonable solution that would take them a few key-strokes and a little bit of flexibility in policy. But, Noooooo.

To refund the ticket, United would charge the $100 change fee. And United would charge the higher airfare, because airfare has already increased since the purchase date a few days ago.

On top of that (as if I need anymore aggravation from United), because I'd applied a United $100 "goodwill certificate" to the purchase (due to unpleasantness on another United trip to California), every one of the United reps told me I have now "used" that coupon and it would not apply to a re-purchase. Even though I haven't really "used" the coupon at all, it's just applied to a ticket that has not been used. It should simply be shifted to the re-purchase. But again, Noooooo.

Could this be any more unreasonable and any worse customer service?

Especially now that Southwest has opened non-stop routes out of Denver, and Frontier is always pleasant to work with, I will not use United again for our family, unless there is absolutely no alternative.

I will call United customer service on Tuesday morning. All they need to do to make this right is refund the first ticket, move the coupon to another ticket, and re-issue the fare on another Visa card AT THE SAME PRICE to me. Too much to ask, you say??

Otherwise, I will end up driving to our airport to get it verified. I have very little faith in United at this point, though, and am a bit concerned that even that effort will not prevent my daughter from going through the third-degree when she checks in and perhaps even being barred from boarding.

As a matter of fact, I am still waiting for my e-mail from United, which three different reps claim to have e-mailed to me last night. Curiouser and curiouser.

Any fodorites who work for United and can address this ridiculous problem? All other fodorites, beware of this situation when purchasing United airfare with a credit card.

That is such BS. I know that I've always had to show the credit card OR a photo ID, but I don't recall having to show both unless I was e-ticketed, and then I've always been with whomever I purchased tickets for.

You can't be the only person who's run into this problem. Their solution is beyond absurd. I don't understand how they can't see how unreasonable they're being.

Have you been able to speak to anyone higher up?

Nina, I was very reluctantly transferred to supervisors, who only repeated the company line. I have e-mailed United's Customer Voice for help, and will call Customer Service when they open Tuesday morning. Wish me luck! Thanks for the support.

Maureen, I find this kind of odd. Like you, I've been purchasing United tickets for my mother for years. She has two outstanding tickets for travel in the next few months that I've purchased recently (one just in the last few days) via united.com. I just spoke to someone at the Premier Executive desk to see if she would be required to show the credit card; since she lives 1500 miles away, that would be problematic! The answer was no. Years ago, I'd have to go present the credit card used to purchase her tickets at a ticket office, but I haven't had to do that in probably 5-6 years.

Did you enter the three-digit security code on the back of your credit card when you purchased the ticket? If not, that might be the problem??

This isn't new, I don't know how you've managed to avoid it before. I think the idea is to protect you, the card-holder, from someone else using your card without authorization. In the past, I have booked tickets on United for my mother to fly from the UK to California and because of this requirement, the tickets were sent to me and I had to mail them to her. Most airlines do this.

There was another mention of this in a post here in past week. When I read it, I filed it in the recesses of my brain, but your post brings it to the surface again since we regularly purchase tickets for our son to travel home from college. And my husband regularly travels on business, sometimes with the client arranging his air on their credit card.

So this really could be a nightmare for many people.

You have my empathy and support in your low regard for UA phone reps - we had an issue on a flight last summer (Jackson Hole to Boston) when our adult son had lost his ID - was trying to find out what to do to allow him to fly.

I also got non-knowledgeable phone reps with indecipherable accents. My favorite was when I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told "No" and disconnected. No, on second thought, my favorite was the argument I had over whether or not Wyoming was part of the US.

Would you like to join my "I hate United" club?

I pretty much agree with Barbara. It's been in place a long time. I get the tickets for our kids and mail them to them. I think it has been in place since 9/11.

Gretchen/Barbara - how would that work. I understand OP to mean no matter how tickets are issued, traveler has to present credit card used to purchase ticket. Since most tickets are e-tickets these days, I am a little confused (which is not entirely unusual)

I wasn't given the option of having a paper ticket to mail away. It wouldn't work anyway, as time is too short to get it to her before the flight date. I've used this same credit card for years with United, I've used this same process with United for years, and never before run into this. Yes, I put in the three digits on the back of the card.

Gail, as I understand it (!) you can have them mailed to an address that is the same as the address your credit card has.

Everyone here is right. It has always been an *ostensible* requirement that was not actually enforced. When I recently bought a tkt for my mother on AA, I called the internet help desk--as opposed to the general services--and they said they would just note it (the fact that the CC and the passenger were different names) in the record for her E-ticket and it would be no problem.

Barbara/Gretchen,

What you guys are saying doesn't make sense - and Gail is not the only one who is confused.

You are talking about having tickets mailed to you and then mailing them on to your family members ... but what has that got to do with your family members then having to present the credit card? ... Am I missing something?

Lots of people have others buying tickets for them. What a mess!

I don;t understand why this is such a surprise. Every time I get my boarding pass via machine (since I travel for business only with carry-ons) you must put the credit card with which you bought the ticket into the machine to get your boareding pass.

Perhaps if you're willing to stand on those enormous lines and get a boarding pass from an agent you can explain it - but the machines won;t give boarding passes without a matching credit card (to protect the cardowner from theft).

The only times I have been forced to show the CC is at theater "will call" windows.
My PP has been enough for airlines.
M

I flew round-trip to Italy this month and didn't have to show my credit card even once, on six different flights. I used my passport to receive my boarding passes, as described above by nytraveler.
I thought the rule was that you provide one form of government-issued photo ID, but were not required to present credit card, too.

Can't you avoid all of this (and we have had to do it sometimes and not at others so who knows) by just checking in online? No one checks anything in that situation and it is so easy.

Taitai

Actually, for E-tickets, at the kiosk I have to swipe <b>a</b> credit card to verify ID and call up itinerary, but it doesn't have to be <b>the</b> credit card used to purchase it. In fact, you can input the confirmation code to call up the itinerary. You then have to show government photo ID to finish check-in/check bags/get through security.

I haven't flown United in several years. American, JetBlue, America West/US Air... they all have similar procedures. And I've bought tickets for my mother-in-law for travel where I didn't accompany her-- and it's all been as I described above. Never been a problem (and, given how dotty my dear MIL is, I would have expected a problem!!)....

Checking in online is probably the best way to try and get around this. Once you have that boarding pass, all you should need at the airport is the photo ID.

Checking in on-line would possibly be the solution, except you can't do that till the day of flight, can you? I hate to leave this hanging till the last minute, then find out I have to rush to the airport to deal with it. I think, though, after talking with 7 United reps now, that the credit card is required and there's no way around that.

MaureenB, with all due respect to the nice people in India are you talking to reps in the U.S. or India? The reason I ask is I've had to call United on several occassions recently and have been transfered to a call center in India. The reps I talked with did not understand my questions or what I was asking so out of frustration I went to the United ticket counter at our local airport and in two minutes resolved my situation. Very frustrating if you're experiencing a similar situation.

MaureenB: If that is indeed correct, that is really a nightmare.
Online check-in is within 24 hours of a flight (unless United has a nightmare rule for that too). I agree that it's best way for you to get around this.
My experience with CO and AA is that if you check-in using a KIOSK, then you have to swipe A credit card. It does not have to be the one that was used to purchase the ticket but I do believe it has to be one with same name of person who purchased the ticket(s).
Good luck.

rjw is right that any cc with the passengers name on it can be used at the Easy Chicken kiosk. Also, if you have Premier or higher status then your Mileage Plus card can be used.

Like ms_go, I just called the Premier Executive Customer Service number to ask about this and I got the same response: no, the cc is not required. Just the photo ID is required.

She said that the &quot;bring the cc&quot; message was intended as just a (lame) deterrent to people who would fraudulently use a cc.

Think about it. It is a routine thing for corp travel agents to purchase tickets for employees, for parents to buy tickets for their children. It would be bad business for United if they actually refused to board a person because they didn't have the cc used for purchase.

gail, were the third party purchased tickets for your DS and DH on United? Did they have any trouble with not showing the cc used for purchase?

caribtraveler, you post was correct up until the &quot;I believe&quot;. Here is an instruction from united.com for use of the kiosk
&quot;Swipe any major credit card with your name on it as it appears on your E-ticket. Mileage Plus Premier, Premier Executive or 1K cards may also be used.&quot;

Last Sunday, I tried to use my Red Carpet Club card at a kiosk but got a message that was virtually identical to the one above. When I put in a cc (of mine) it worked.

Maureen - online check-in begins 24 hours before scheduled departure.

And yes, the traveler can swipe any credit card with his/her name on it to get a boarding pass from Mr. Chicken. I've watched my mother swipe her own credit card to get boarding passes from United, America West and Continental kiosks in the past year, although none of the tickets were purchased with her card (don't ask....).

Check in online, check you bags with a porter, and proceed to security where they just look at your i.d.

If you were using someone else's credit card, you could also use it at a check-in kiosk...so there is no i.d. check there. The whole thing doesn't make sense, I don't think there will be a problem.

it actually is an id check for issuing the bps

I know you are all giving very reasonable answers and suggestions. That's what I expected when I called United, too. I totally expected them to be able to solve the problem on their own computers. After all, I'm a long-standing Mileage Plus member, so is the passenger. I've used the same Mileage Plus Visa to purchase on-line United airfare for years, with no problem.
But I called again this morning, spoke with a rep who asked her supervisor, and they both said this particular e-ticket REQUIRES the credit card, no getting around it. They indicated that maybe I made a mistake when entering the security code on the back of my card, so that raised a red flag. They said it's not common for this to be a requirement, but it is in this case. I told them it seems if there was a concern about the security number, the sale shouldn't have gone through in the first place. Why wouldn't the system just prompt for the number to be input again??? That would be too simple, I guess.
I am hoping United Customer Service will actually provide true service when I call on Tueday morning. It's not the end of the world if I have to drive to the airport, but it's certainly not convenient, and not good service from United.com.
Maybe she'd get on the plane without the credit card, but I don't want to risk it.
Once, when she was flying home on Frontier, they denied her boarding, saying her ticket wasn't paid for! She even had a print-out of the receipt and itinerary e-mailed from Frontier, but they insisted it wasn't paid. The agent was totally unreasonable about it. How could she have a receipt showing payment and amount, when the agent said it wasn't. It happened at that time when Frontier's computers went down for a day while they switched to a new system. Apparently my Visa payment got lost in the shuffle. It was a nightmare. We had to purchase an astronomical fare on-the-spot, to get her on the plane, then resolved it many, many phone calls later. I digress...
Flying used to be fun, didn't it?

Response to mrwunrfl - third party tickets for husband (through a corporate card from another company if that matters) were on United - several flights Boston-Chicago, and at least once was even on a one-way ticket. For son, on AA, CO, USAirways, Delta - do not remember any on UA.

Husband and son have different last name than I.

To add even another wrinkle to this, in February dtr and I flew Boston-Mia on husband's UA ff miles, using his credit card (again, different last name) to pay $10 fee and again to pay to upgrade to Economy Plus. Checked in at kiosk once and with live person once - no one questioned credit card or anything else.

Now I am wondering, has anyone ever been denied boarding because of this stated credit card requirement - so I have just started a thread to address that question under airline section.

Maureen- I had this exact same thing happen. Onoly difference was that I was changing the return portion of my daughter's trip, so she had already shown ID and flown! (and I'd been with her on the outbound trip!)

I went thru all the steps as you are doing, but in the end got so tired of the UAL 'line' that i just lied.

Told them I was one hour from the Honolulu Airport, was handicapped and had no car. I told them reasonable accomodation would be for them to send an agent to my house, or send a prepaid taxi.

They immediately put a note in the computer that the daughter could come home without the card......

I also love United's policy of not accepting &quot;Customer relations $travel discount certificates on-line. You must call in to use the discount as there is no box to enter it on the web site, but then the charge $15 to purchase tickets over the phone!

To check in at a Delta kiosk, you don't have to swipe a credit card. If you have a Skymiles number, you can enter that. Or, an easier way, is simply to scan the barcode on you e-ticket receipt.

We have bought airline tickets for employees and family members on a number of airlines (don't recall if United was one of them, but know Northwest, American, Southwest and Continental were) and we have never had to have them present our credit card. When they check in at the airport they just put the confirmation number in and if they need to put in a credit card they put theirs in but they are not charged again for the ticket we paid for. We do get a confirmation mailed to us when we get buy tickets for others but they are not the actual e-ticket, that is the one we get off the computer. Think the thing they mail us is just so we know our visa has been charged. It in no way is a ticket or can be used as a ticket.

lcuy! you lied? Heavens! ha ha.

Actually, Maureen, at this point, you have some reasonable solutions and I think it will work out for you....however, the issue of customer NON-service is a big concern. I went through a couple of crazy situations with Delta and ATA, and forwarded my complaint to their corporate office to get answers. I had to hunt around on their website (look for media relations and/or investor relations) and go from there. For example, for United, go to http://ir.united.com/phoenix.zhtml?c...p=irol-contact

Sounds like a lot of trouble, which is sad, but that's the only way to get any response or action sometimes. Good luck.

gail, you asked a good question. Here is another: do you know anyone who was denied boarding because of no cc. Have you ever been standing in a checkin line and heard anything like that happening, or a UA person calling a cc company or something to verify? We've seen posts on this subject from people who are concerned about that &quot;policy&quot;, but why aren't there posts from people who actually had a problem at the airport?

MaureenB, make a copy of both sides of your cc and fax it. The united.com website is not a very good one. The FFers at flyertalk call it united.bomb so when you ask &quot;how hard it would be for the website&quot; to forgive errors or whatever, the answer must be: pretty hard. I've used it and I think that I forgot to use the security code and it flagged it. So, I do believe that your memory is correct that you entered the code.

Am not sure why you would need to wait until Tuesday. I did call customer service today.

I think that several years ago that various airlines wanted to see the cc at checkin. My guess is they did it back then because online purchase was a new thing. More guessing: they found that it caused too much trouble for whatever level of fraud it might prevent.

By &quot;flagged it&quot; I mean it didn't let me continue until I corrected it.

The reservations reps told me Customer Service is closed for the holiday, till Tuesday, so I didn't even try to call. Jeez, maybe that was wrong information. Reservations rep I just called, who was in the Philippines and whose accent was slightly easier to understand, said that Reservations can only take orders and use the computer system as United has designed it. He said they cannot manipulate the system to solve problems, but he thought Customer Relations could take care of it for me if I called them.
P.S. I should have posted this on the airlines section. Didn't even know there is one! Thanks for all your input, everyone.

mrwunrfl: Apparently I believe wrongly! Thanks for the clarification.

MaureenB - I haven't flown UA for years, but assuming they are correct that <b>THIS</b> particular itinerary requires your credit card, then I guess you just have to tell them to cancel the ticket and refund you. Then, try booking UA again and see if that notice popped up again. If it does, then you need to take your business elsewhere in this case.

If they wouldn't refund you, put a stop payment with your credit card. UA is forcing you to do an unreasonable and often impossible thing. How can the traveler obtain your credit card? The whole thing is so absurd.

Also, ask around on the UA board on flyertalk.com. Maybe someone can help you there.

Maureen

Follow my advice

The OFFICIAL information you require is listed below.

Send your complaint NOW addressed to Glen Tilton (Below) make sure you copy in the other 2 (Below).

As I say, SEND IT NOW VIA EMAIL, they will have it immediately after the holiday.

I know you will have a satisfactory response.

DO NOT AT THIS STAGE CONTACT ANY UA OFFICIAL BY TELEPHONE,AS YOU WILL NOT MAKE CONTACT WITH ANYONE IN A POSITION OF AUTHORITY.

Be sure to include your contact # within your email.

Keep us informed.

Primary contact

Pamela A. Coslet
General manager, customer relations
(877) 228-1327

[email protected]

Secondary contact (*)

John P. Tague
Executive vice president, marketing sales and revenue

(877) 228-1327
[email protected]

Chief executive (*)
Glenn F. Tilton
Chairman, president and chief executive officer

(877) 228-1327
[email protected]

Paul

Is it a major holiday today in India? That could be why customer service is closed.

Paul, you rock! Where did you find that? I was combing their site for that information but gave up.

The more genuine complaints the 3 executives above receive, the better the service from UA. (Hopefully)

These executives and their close colleagues are so far removed from their customers; they have no idea what is happening in the real world.

The airline industry is such a cutthroat business nowadays; it’s in each airline’s interests to start listening to their customers.

Paul