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Buying airline tickets for a person in another country?

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Chat' started by DonD, Nov 20, 2013.

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  1. DonD

    DonD VIP Whale

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    I want to fly my sister-in-law from Brazil to the USA. Can I just do it on-line like any other E ticket?
     
  2. wigwam_salesman

    wigwam_salesman VIP Whale

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    I can't vouch for whether you can do it between those specific countries, but I have personally bought tickets for someone else coming to see me from Europe and from America and it's fairly common at work for us to book client airline tickets on a company credit card (we do charge it to their account after - we just have a corporate travel account and it works out cheaper sometimes).

    Your passport is your ID when travelling internationally, not the originating credit card, so providing you have the persons details needed to buy the ticket in the first place I can't see it being a problem.
     
  3. SH0CK

    SH0CK Stylin' and Profilin' Quasi Tech Admin

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    If I'm not mistaken, the only sticking point is making sure that the complete spelling of their name matches so they can board the plane.
     
  4. mikenhe

    mikenhe VIP Whale

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    I did it for my in laws to visit us from England earlier this year.


    I did have a call from the credit card company within about 9.5 seconds....

    you may want to let them know first.


    and yeah - name to match the id they'll use.
     
  5. dean_1492

    dean_1492 High-Roller

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    When I bought my future wife a ticket in the Philippines, Philippine Air wanted the credit card info of the person who bought the ticket. So I copied my driver license, and my CC on the same piece of paper, and sent it to her thru email.

    Call the company that you are buying the ticket from, they will tell you all their requirements.
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2013
  6. HoyaHeel

    HoyaHeel Grammar Police & Admin

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    I agree- I have read on flyertalk some instances where the airline wants to see the credit card that purchased the ticket. Not sure if that was Delta specific (that's the board I read most often there) or location specific - but in each case, the card owner going to a local airport and showing the credit card was sufficient for the information/card check to be recorded in the flight record of the passenger to ok the passenger's trip from another country.....
     
  7. wigwam_salesman

    wigwam_salesman VIP Whale

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    How bizarre. I've booked Delta plenty of times with a UK credit card and not had that request...yet.
     
  8. HoyaHeel

    HoyaHeel Grammar Police & Admin

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  9. Kickin

    Kickin Flea

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    UK is barely a foreign country. The examples posted have been about places like Manila. Big difference. I used to travel around Asia all the time for work and in the beginning all my cards would get flagged or even stop working because CC companies assumed fraud when they saw charges in places like Manila or Jakarta. And that is when I was using them for myself. After I explained things to them I was fine going forward but in the beginning I didn't expect that to happen at all.
     
  10. wigwam_salesman

    wigwam_salesman VIP Whale

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  11. wigwam_salesman

    wigwam_salesman VIP Whale

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    This is a joke, right?

    FYI - Unless I tell my bank I am going to America (or any other country) I get a call about 10 seconds after a foreign transaction has been completed (or they just restrict my card until I ring the fraud team).

    Credit card companies don't care what country you are in or from, they care when their computer software flags that two purchases have been made from seemingly impossible geographical differences based on the time apart.

    I think you're also confused with the point you are attacking. My comment was to Hoya saying that the person booking had to physically take the credit card to a local airport to complete the booking. You are the first person to mention the credit card company itself. :)
     
  12. Kickin

    Kickin Flea

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    LOL relax I'm not attacking your post at all. Obviously the UK is a foreign country, that was in jest. I meant that CC companies are much more leery of foreign charges in places like Manila than London. The UK is a such a common 1-2 day trip for so many business travelers here and vice versa, Manila not so much.
     
  13. wigwam_salesman

    wigwam_salesman VIP Whale

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    I think I need a better credit card lol. Mine punishes me if I go do a different part of the UK, never mind America.
     
  14. Kickin

    Kickin Flea

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    When I first started traveling to Asia I primarily used AMEX Gold, after that was declined in Jakarta the AMEX people upgraded me to Platinum free for the first year because they said the Platinum card will never get declined outside of a certain home radius. Any suspected fraud is dealt with after the fact. I've never had any issue with my Platinum and I lived out in the region for years using that card even though it was still under my US address.
     
  15. wigwam_salesman

    wigwam_salesman VIP Whale

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    Good tip...not sure I'm ready to start paying for my credit card yet though.
     
  16. HoyaHeel

    HoyaHeel Grammar Police & Admin

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    What my bank told me once (not Amex, never have problems with them, knock wood) is they track abnormal expenditures. So if they're used to you traveling all over the US or even the world, a hotel in France or Kenya or Peru might not be a red flag. But if you never leave your state, then a charge in Chicago might be a flag. It was all about usage patterns.

    But now I'm quite far afield from Don's original question, which I think has been pretty fairly answered as "call & double check" and it will probably be ok:peace:
     
  17. DonD

    DonD VIP Whale

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    Mission accomplished. I called my CC company and told them that I was buying tickets from a foreign airline. I could hear her typing the information into her computer and she asked me several questions. Next day, I purchased the ticket and within a few minutes my phone rang with questions and about a half hour later they called again.

    Thanks all for your help.:nworthy:
     
  18. lotso-bear

    lotso-bear VIP Whale

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    Like someone else mentioned, sometimes the airport employees ask for the credit card that was used for the purchase, due to the increasing number of stolen CCs being used for travel. As a precaution, I would contact the airline's office in Brazil to let them know of the situation...

    This happened to my relative who was flying from Tokyo to Seattle on a ticket I paid for. Fortunately, since I fly out of Tokyo on that airline a lot, I talked to the station manager and confirmed that the person was my relative and I paid for her ticket.
     
  19. DonD

    DonD VIP Whale

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    Do you think that I have to do that even though they issued an E-ticket? I went on their website and it said the ticket was paid in full.
     
  20. lotso-bear

    lotso-bear VIP Whale

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    All tickets are issued an e-ticket #. It just depends on the airport agent your relative deals with. These "check ups" usually happen from countries with a lot of CC fraud.

    I'd still let them know since it's better to be on the safe side and your relative wouldn't have to deal with any issues at the airport. On the bright side, Brazil's time zone isn't much different than the US, so a phone call to fix things wouldn't be an issue either...
     
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