Original credit Card to Check-in on Delta?

So now we have to take a picture of the card we use as a precaution, even if we bring it? What if you have the card with you and it is lost or stolen, it happens.
Soon we’ll need a mile long checklist of things to do for flying before we even start to pack.

Here is the one being discussed: https://6abc.com/post/travel-warning-delta-credit-card-policy-strands-couple-action-news-troubleshooters/17905418/

Here is one in 2011 https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-air-lines-skymiles/1201589-denied-boarding-delta-not-having-original-purchase-credit-card.html

And similar from 2021 https://viewfromthewing.com/just-because-you-have-a-ticket-doesnt-mean-delta-will-let-you-check-in/

I have had to do this quite often, it’s a fraud thing.
When I used to buy tickets from mother, I would often swing by the airline counter when I was traveling and get them to go ahead and look at the credit card for the ticket and verify everything so that when she checked in, she didn’t have any problems. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon and that’s one of the reasons my American Express always travels with me because it is the credit card I used to buy my plane tickets.

Now the Delta agent was wrong. There is a way to get around this without it. You just have to know how to do it and when they tell you, there’s not you look at them sweetly and you say can you get your manager because I think we can resolve this.

Actually, the absolute worst was Southwest. My credit card had been stolen so I no longer had it and we were there for about 45 minutes before the manager showed up and they decided I could actually fly to Punta Cana.

Online check-in????

Interesting situation- I thought the credit card verification was a thing of the long past. Guess not! I don’t fly Delta, certainly haven’t encountered the requirement in well over a decade on any other domestic or foreign carrier I’ve flown.

I can't ever recall having to produce the credit card during online check-in or at the airport. Would online check-in help one avoid this situation?

But I have only flown Delta once in the last decade, and similarly someone mentioned Southwest and I have flown them only once in the last 10 years, too. I hope others will report if this has happened with AA, or United, or any other airlines.

The only travel corollary is I have noticed some hotels require you to check in with the physical card you made the reservation with. I have noticed that in Europe more than in the US. And to me it always begs the question of what if in the interim the card I used had been stolen or cancelled. Fortunately that has not been the case, but I make darn sure I have the card to show the hotel, and from now on I will do the same with airlines.

I have encountered this a fair bit but mostly in third world countries and smaller airlines and this requirement was always clearly spelled out on your confirmation, that the cc was required when checking in.

Delta did this to us at SeaTac once. We had the card with us so it was okay. But it makes me wary - I have purchased tickets for family members a few times and so there would be no way for them to provide the card since they don’t have one.

I make allocations for this now but I think it’s nonsense.

But it makes me wary - I have purchased tickets for family members a few times and so there would be no way for them to provide the card since they don’t have one.

Same here, I have done this for my kids...wow, this is something to consider going forward.

This is fascinating. I don't remember having had to show a card for years..... for 10 years, surely, and probably longer than that !! There is a potential problem I hadn't thought of worrying about.

Larry thanks for posting this. I, too, haven't had to show a CC in so many years I literally don’t remember.

Carol, your experience is interesting especially since you fly out of Delta’s home airport.

I wonder if it makes a difference if you use a an Amex SkyMiles branded card for booking?

In the future if I purchase tickets for my kids I’ll have them charge the tickets and I’ll reimburse them. Easier and less stressful.

I went to the Delta website. If you scroll down to Credit/Debit Card Presentation, the policy is there:

https://www.delta.com/us/en/booking-information/online-booking/overview

I find this out of the turn of the century. Love the "suggestion" that purchaser non-traveler should go to another ticket office (Ticket office in 2025??) or airport ticket agent to present card for the traveler. Right - or just purchase tickets for your kid/friend/parent/relative from another airline.

Another reason for me (the first being that Delta has few routes from ORD) not to become a Delta flyer.

If you think flying another carrier will prevent this...uh no!

I've had to "prove" the credit card on AA, Southwest and BA

(And a card reissue is not a problem since 90% of the issuers only change the last 4 digits which can be explained)

I checked United and AA - not required. That was not true back in the early 2000s and '90s. Certainly post covid on those carriers with many domestic and international flights it has not been a concern. No problems with online check-in no matter where what my destination.

I've never flown Southwest and haven't flown BA for decades (by design).

I have seen the requirement on receipts and tickets from a couple foreign carriers (Asian), but have never been asked to show the card. Even that experience was shortly pre-Covid - haven't flown those carriers since.

About two decades ago spouse and I were flying on bereavement tickets - inbound was separate, returning home together. When I booked the tickets, the agent insisted on doing it as two transactions with two different cards so we would each have the original card when we checked in. Even though I charged them to a joint account with the same number on both cards. And I certainly didn't have spouse's copy of the card in my hand as I booked the tickets. It all felt a little pointless, but I guess having a problem boarding would have been made even worse by the circumstances.

I have never had to show my credit card when checking in. ID, yes, credit card, no.

American Express: Don't leave home without it.

If someone were to pay for their ticket using Apple Pay, to verify they own the credit card one could show the following:

• The actual physical credit card linked to their Apple Pay

• The phone/device: Apple Wallet on the device will show Apple Pay DPAN (Device Primary Account Number) token last 4 digits.

  Open Apple Wallet > Tap the credit card > tap the 3-dot icon on right top corner > tap 'Card Number'

• Copy of credit card statement showing the transaction (as an extra precaution)

Adding 2 more data points - both of these involve Delta.

A hiking buddy was traveling to join a group of us for a hiking trip in the Pyrenees in the second half of August. He was flying Denver to Barcelona. His son was also traveling but about a week later, also on Delta, to meet up with his dad after the hike. The son flew Denver to Rome before making his way to Barcelona.

First issue was my buddy wasn't able to check in on the app in the 24 hours before the flight. Kept getting an error but no indication what the issue was. Next day at the check-in counter the agent asked for the credit card. After showing his cc he was checked in. Realizing that his son may also encounter the same issue since the ticket was paid for with my buddy's cc, he asked the agent to put in a note on his son's ticket to indicate that the credit card had been verified.

However, the same issue arose and the note was not to be found when the son checked in. In fact, Delta made the son purchase a new ticket at the counter with a different cc that the son was carrying. Interestingly enough, Delta charged the same amount as the original ticket and eventually refunded the original ticket.

Not sure what Delta is doing and which tickets/travelers are impacted by this but I would expect to be clearly told to bring the original cc. I don't fly Delta but I know I purchase most of my wife's tickets with my cc and there are times I am not around when she is checking in.

”The only travel corollary is I have noticed some hotels require you to check in with the physical card you made the reservation with. I have noticed that in Europe more than in the US.”

I’ve never had Delta/Air France/KLM require my credit card when checking in for a flight. And until this last trip, I didn’t ever bring it to Europe. (Brought the AMEX because of Capital One recent changes.). I guess that will change now. : )

And I typically stay in 10-12 hotels or B&B’s each trip, and none have required the same physical card. Usually they ask if I want to charge the card used with the reservation or a different card. I do always carry the card I use for hotel reservations, though.

I saw the news segment too, and it seems like a one-off. In the history of people flying out of Heathrow on Delta, it had NEVER been in the news. And now all of a sudden it is. And this just CANNOT be a requirement (like, ever), otherwise Delta will be flying empty planes. So let's just all dial back on the panicking and gawking.

The "one off" situation, it seems to me, is people who don't carry their credit cards, particularly the one used for airplane tickets.

And there is real peril for people flying Delta who did not buy their ticket themselves, with their own credit card. it is not difficult finding examples of that, like a parent buying a ticket for a family member who they are not traveling with. I have done that for my kids, but I won't do it again after reading about it on this thread.

Otherwise, this is a real issue.

Just curious. Those who are doubting this, are they questioning the veracity of the Consumer Affairs specialist at one the nation’s oldest and most respected original broadcast stations (as in when ABC, NBC, and CBS stations were the only on air stations)?

So, it's in the fine print. Anyone know if it's only Delta, or other airlines as well?

I wish investigative journalists would investigate further to find out the why.