Booking Ticket For Thai Gf

[barnaby666]

hello members, im trying to purchase a ticket for my thai gf to come visit me in england, while trying to make a payment online it warns me that the person booking the ticket must be the one who uses the same visa card. it also points out that on check in she must produce this visa card? if this is the case how do i get round booking a ticket for her online? is there anyway around this? will they really ask for a credit card when she checks in? any help much appreciated.

kind regards

[tigerjohn]

depends who you are booking through and weather ticket is an e ticket or not, in my experience if its an e ticket i have booked it and just emailed it to my mrs to print off at the other end, unless things have changed?

[whybother]

I remember reading on another thread awhile ago about a similar situation.

I think the OP rang the airline and sorted it out. He may have also sent a copy of the card ... or something like that.

Anyway, might be worth a search.

[leafmould]

this happend with me in december with emirates, i called them and they said i could only go to the office (i went to manchester) and present the credit card, they then gave me a bit of paper which i had to scan and email to the missis and she presented that when checking in, they did ask for it and indeed took a copy themselves, check with your airline though, it could be different

[7by7]

I think this is a measure introduced to prevent credit card fraud.

I also think that you may get more responses in the travel forum, so moving.

[PattayaParent]

There's usually an option on the website to fill in a form and fax it to them if the person travelling is not the CC holder.

But it also depends on WHEN the booking is for, if it's been charged and paid for already on the CC then the person travelling won't be asked to produce it. This is usually a couple of months to allow for the charge to be challenged.

[tripplejjj]

Each time I purchased the eTickets, I had to physically present my ID and the credit card that I used to purchase the eTickets online to the airline before boarding. My recommendations: You purchase a real ticket in England and mail it to her or send her cash and let her pay for the tickets after she has her visa. Either way, you are not getting that money back.

[NanLaew]

It does depend on the airline you are booking with as most have a procedure for allowing 2nd party travel on another credit card. They are all different but usually involve the person paying for the ticket to sign an affidavit.

Take a look at ebookers.com I would be surprised if you can't find the same ticket for the same price or maybe cheaper and when you pay them, they don't need the affidavit stuff. You email her the eticket info and off she goes. Most of these non-airline online ticketing sites are the same. Usually it's only airlines dedicated online sales sites that have the ticketing/pax/payer restrictions.

Edited May 7, 2011 by NanLaew

[Contractor]

If you are concerned about putting gf on your account as an additional cardholder and sending her a credit card, then you might want to consider using a pre-pay/top up card like Sun Tuxedo Mastercard. You can order a card in your name and another in her name and send her card to her.

Once she has safely received it you can then go online and put money onto the card. I know there is a small charge for using it in an ATM, but it can also be used like a debit/credit card - I do not know if there is a charge for using it like this overseas but if she is making a transaction online in the same currency the card was issued in, then this would not be an issue maybe - so it's an option for her buying the ticket.

She would then have the card in her possession when she checked in at the airport.

Edited May 7, 2011 by Contractor

[barnaby666]

thanks for all the useful replies. today i managed to book a ticket with ebookers. a return ticket for my gf to england for £580. from searching around all day i think iv got a fairly good deal. iv emailed my gf the eticket and 'hopefully' she wont be asked for my visa debit card when she checks in (fingers crossed).

thanks again thai visa and members for helpful advice.

until next time..

kind regards,

[Shurup]

Happened to me many times. Had to go to the air company office to buy the ticket myself. One of the other times the ticket was canceled even before my GF got to the airport for the reason - names on a CC and ticket don't match. Glad we had the change in plans so we went to the airport together where I found the ticket was canceled, so I bought another one right then. Since then I added her on my CC as a secondary card holder and now have no problems as she got a card on her name.

[phuketrichard]

it depends on airlaines, air asia/thai/jetstar dont care,

other sak thta if thre cc holder is not travelling then they need a copy of the cc and signed. so scan a copy of ur card, print it, sign it, scan it and send as an attachemnt to ur gf and it should be no problem.

also might hekp if u also send her a copy of ur passport

[gjoo888]

I would check with the airline your gf is flying with just to prevent any problems that might arise. Many airlines require the cc used to purchase the ticket be presented at the airport to prevent fraud. Different airlines have different policies on how to "get around" the policy. Some airlines require signed copies of the cc and your id be faxed to them, others ask that you present yourself at one of their ticketing offices with the cc and id to alleviate any possibility of fraud. Just because you bought the ticket through a 3rd party does not necessarily eliminate the need for the cc to be presented, I would check to be sure. Give the airline a call.

[wazzi]

Had a major problem with this in Feb this year. My girlfriend flew Air asia from Udon Thani to Bangkok, E ticket paid for by my credit card. No problems, Nothing was asked for. two weeks later she was flying Phuket to Sydney via Bangkok with Thai, when she couldnt produce the credit card she was told she would have to buy another ticket. No amount of explaining got the check in person on side, they just kept saying that the credit card that paid for the ticket must be produced or no fly. Finally a supervisor was called for and backed up the first person. they eventually agreed to let my GF call me and I gave them the complete credit card information over the phone and she was allowed to continue with a stern warning.

Interestingly enough my GF has just flown out of Sydney back to Bangkok with Thai and there was no mention of the credit card being produced, Check in was an absolute breeze.

Pity the flight was then delayed 5.5 hours only 30 mins before boarding, after everyone had gone through customs and immigration so were stuck at the boarding gate!!

I have since organised a second card on my account in my girlfriends name, It only has a $2000.00 limit for security reasons.

Dont risk it as it can create havoc.

[bangkokburning]

i booked tickets on tg and it stated that i needed to show my cc at the desk in bkk. tg did ask for it but they did not ask for it on return from ktm.

would seem to be sop.

[bangkokburning]

someone stated air asia doesnt care but i do recall they say something to the affect when you buy tickets. i also wager that the rules wul be different on an aa flt to uk and not domestic or even somewhere like kul or sin.

[Chivas]

thanks for all the useful replies. today i managed to book a ticket with ebookers. a return ticket for my gf to england for £580. from searching around all day i think iv got a fairly good deal. iv emailed my gf the eticket and 'hopefully' she wont be asked for my visa debit card when she checks in (fingers crossed).

thanks again thai visa and members for helpful advice.

until next time..

kind regards,

Bit of a risk to take ??

[kimamey]

I bought a ticket for my gf last year and I was concerned about this as well. The flight was with Etihad but booked through Expedia. I remember I phoned them and they said there was no problem. I'm sure Expedia have an option to be a travel arranger for another person which i think is what I did. So long as the CC company are OK with it and pay up then it's just a case of ID which is normally done by you giving the passenger's passport number which must match the one they show at the airport. I think I had to send her detail to the airline but I may be wrong. i would check with the airline and/or booking agent.

Hope you both have a great time.

[barnaby666]

yes possibly risky , but if id have booked the ticked direct from the airline the web site stated id that my visa credit card would need to be produced on check in. . but when i booked with a travel agent (ebookers) they insisted the e ticket would be all that is needed to check in. possibly a little risky, but seems so strange to me. i buy nearly everything online on a day to day basis and never need to physically show my visa debit card in person.. if every company worked like this id never be able to purchase anything online or over the phone.

from reading all the useful comments i can see im not alone with this query, so il let the forum know on Thursday whether or not we were successful . thanks again forum for useful advice.

regards, Barnaby

[NanLaew]

^ Don't sweat it barnaby. I recommended ebookers because I have PERSONALLY purchased tickets for other people several times through their website and there's never been a question of showing my charge card at check-in. When I have bought tickets for others direct from Singapore Airlines or Thai Airways websites, completing their affidavit procedures is mandatory.

When others chip in with 'helpful' advice about being asked for their plastic for a ticket purchased online, they invariably NEVER mention if this was bought direct from the carriers online ticketing website or from an online ticket shop such as ebookers. Failing to specify this renders their 'advice' as much use a tits on a boar pig IMHO.

Thai Airways normally ask to see the credit card when checking on for the outward leg but normally do not request to see it when checking in for the ORIGINAL return leg of the same booking but WILL ask to see it if any online or over-the-phone changes have been made to that original return itinerary.

The advice on getting a pre-paid debit card for your partner is very sound. My wife and I have separate MasterCard debit cards from Caxton fx on a joint account top-up that I control. This allows me to make online bookings in her name and her charge card so there's no problem with the card verification at check in. I keep a 'float' of around 500 pounds in it so she also has some emergency funds.

Edited May 9, 2011 by NanLaew

[Penkoprod]

^ Don't sweat it barnaby. I recommended ebookers because I have PERSONALLY purchased tickets for other people several times through their website and there's never been a question of showing my charge card at check-in. When I have bought tickets for others direct from Singapore Airlines or Thai Airways websites, completing their affidavit procedures is mandatory.

When others chip in with 'helpful' advice about being asked for their plastic for a ticket purchased online, they invariably NEVER mention if this was bought direct from the carriers online ticketing website or from an online ticket shop such as ebookers. Failing to specify this renders their 'advice' as much use a tits on a boar pig IMHO.

Thai Airways normally ask to see the credit card when checking on for the outward leg but normally do not request to see it when checking in for the ORIGINAL return leg of the same booking but WILL ask to see it if any online or over-the-phone changes have been made to that original return itinerary.

The advice on getting a pre-paid debit card for your partner is very sound. My wife and I have separate MasterCard debit cards from Caxton fx on a joint account top-up that I control. This allows me to make online bookings in her name and her charge card so there's no problem with the card verification at check in. I keep a 'float' of around 500 pounds in it so she also has some emergency funds.

NanLaew, do you not find that the likes of Caxton tend to be VERY gouging with the exchange rate?

I used to use one when the 150 TBH charge came out, on top of any fee my own UK bank imposed

On working out what rate i was getting, it was about 1.5 - 2 Baht less than the average rate.

Worked out at at least a 3% gouge

Penkoprod

[PattayaParent]

someone stated air asia doesnt care but i do recall they say something to the affect when you buy tickets. i also wager that the rules wul be different on an aa flt to uk and not domestic or even somewhere like kul or sin.

It says so on their website but I've never been asked to show a CC on an international flight with them.

I always have it just in case though.

[NanLaew]

The advice on getting a pre-paid debit card for your partner is very sound. My wife and I have separate MasterCard debit cards from Caxton fx on a joint account top-up that I control. This allows me to make online bookings in her name and her charge card so there's no problem with the card verification at check in. I keep a 'float' of around 500 pounds in it so she also has some emergency funds.

NanLaew, do you not find that the likes of Caxton tend to be VERY gouging with the exchange rate?

I used to use one when the 150 TBH charge came out, on top of any fee my own UK bank imposed

On working out what rate i was getting, it was about 1.5 - 2 Baht less than the average rate.

Worked out at at least a 3% gouge

Penkoprod

It's an 'emergency' card and although I haven't compared Northern Rock's forex rates (they own the Caxton fx card), I would think that the rates they use aren't too different from other banks offering the same types of card. Certainly it's never been used for regular ATM withdrawals in Thailand; that's not why we got them. I would think that's a 3% convenience fee.

[Rusty53]

I tried the samething through Bangkok Airways last week and got nervous so I emailed the company and the reponse from them is below.

Thank you for your interest in Bangkok Airways' service. According to your e-mail, we would like to inform you that due to the restriction of the online payment is card holder must be one of the passenger in the itinerary and required to present the card used to purchased upon check in.

However, if fail to comply with the conditions as above. Please be informed that passenger required to repayment (at the same fare and under the same booking) after the new payment complete, we will refund the original ticket in full amount to the card used purchased only.

Thus, please be recomend that if the card holder do not travelling with the passenger so we would like to recomend passenger to purchased by her credit card for your convenience.

Should there be any further inquiries or more assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We are looking forward to serving you soon.

Sincerely Yours,

Naruemon Klaiwijitr

Reservation Center, Bangkok Airways Co.,Ltd

6/5/2011, 10:36:45

Bangkok Airways Co., Ltd

Reservation Center

Operating Hours: 07.30-18.30Hrs

Email: [email protected]

Tel.: 66 (2) 270 6699 or Local Contact: 1771

Fax: 66 (2) 265 5556

Address: 99 Mu 14, Vibhavadirangsit Rd.,

Chom Phon, Chatuchak,

Bangkok, 10900, Thailand

[watcharacters]

I just flew on Singapore Airlines from SFO to BKK a week ago. At SFO I was required to show the credit card I used for booking as a condition of checking in. Don't know what would have happened if I'd recently lost the card and was awaiting a replacement.

Cheers

[NanLaew]

I just flew on Singapore Airlines from SFO to BKK a week ago. At SFO I was required to show the credit card I used for booking as a condition of checking in. Don't know what would have happened if I'd recently lost the card and was awaiting a replacement.

Cheers

I know the answer! You would have been denied boarding and the only way they would have let you on is after buying a new ticket.

What do I win then?