News out this week that Northwest airlines and Southwest airlines in the US are now accepting PayPal for ticket purchases on their websites.
While my immediate reaction was ‘Cool! An extra layer of security’, my next thought was ‘What happens to your insurance?’ You’re covered for issues with purchase on most items on your credit card, but I don’t believe that anything similar will apply if you purchase via PayPal?
What do you think?
Security for who though, Elly? Will purchases of airline tickets only be granted to those with “verified” PayPal accounts, if so is the airline then privy to the account details as an extra security check since PayPal only goes on e-mail address lending potential for the purchaser not being the passenger as most airlines want these days? I see potential trouble in both directions, either an an invasion of customer’s private details or a problem with non-account holder ticket purchases. Yet another reason for me to maintain my grounded status due to a fear of flying.
Posted on July 12, 2007 at 9:58 am.
I guess the security I was thinking of was the not passing of your credit card details and home address to yet another company…
No details on if it will only be for ‘verified’ accounts, but why the concern over purchasers not being passengers? I’ve done that before in purchasing tickets for my mother or a group of people… In fact I booked both myself and George onto the same flight in October, but the ticket purchases were over a month apart (took him much longer to get the leave approved).
Posted on July 12, 2007 at 10:18 am.
Perhaps my unfamiliarity having not flown for a while but I was under the impression that many airlines tried to enforce that at least one of the passengers was the card holder so as to discourage fraudulent bookings on stolen card numbers and as a means of checking that the person did actually exist. Perhaps it’s not the case though as you say, you managed to book ok for somebody else.
Posted on July 12, 2007 at 11:02 am.
I don’t think it’s an issue with most airlines these days… They get all the details of the passenger anyway, even if they’re not the cardholder.
To be honest, as a frequent flyer I want all my security checks done at the airport, not by the airlines during booking. If a name is on the no-fly list then they can refuse to sell the ticket, and as long as the passenger matches the passport, that’s all that can be done until the physical security checks.
The security screening is more tedious then efficient, it’s really just for show. I managed to fly into Israel with a Leatherman multi tool (including 5 inch knife blade) this year, not caught by either Dublin or Paris security staff…
Posted on July 12, 2007 at 11:06 am.
myself. Leatherman no hassles in Dublin airport, forgot to take it out the bag and was taken off me in Qatar – almost cried.
Posted on July 13, 2007 at 6:14 pm.