Need credit card to buy air tickets :( ?

jivan

Hi all,
I was surprised/taken aback tht one has to have a credit card in order to do online air ticket bookings while u can do the same in cash if u go to the specific airline counter at the counter, you could do the same transaction in cash. I wonder what's the issue here? AFAIK debit card is also networked. Although I haven't used the debit card to buy much stuff but doesn't the card scanner send details to the bank on the fly & know if the balance is good or not. If yes, then why can't airlines do it in their booking thing. There is a whole new mkt. (atleast 10-15%) more potential travelers who would potentially become the mkt. Of course how they will service them is an all-different question/ball-game.

icetea

I'm not sure if I understand what you're trying to ask, but if it's about using debit cards for online purchase of air tickets, then yes, it's possible to use them, just as credit cards. They sometimes use "credit card" as a generic term for all cards. There are some cases in which debit cards are not accepted, but that is usually clearly stated.

akt

As long as your debit card has Visa or MC symbol, it should be accepted. However ATM cards without such logos are much less welcome. A small business in India does not want to deal with all the small banks in the world. Companies like Visa and MC mediate the transaction, for a fee of course.