Booking flights for someone else...can you do it?

Hi

My husbands son (sorry, i just can't come to terms with the phrase Step-Son because that would make me a step-mum!) has finally got his passport and is ready to come over for his first visit.

He's 18yrs old but doesn't have a debit or credit card.
His mother is REFUSING (! don't even get me started !) to get involved in the process so we can't get her to book his flight.

I've found a fantastic flight on Expedia.com (about £300 cheaper than the same flight on Expedia.co.uk)

My question is, can i book his flight from here?  Bearing in mind it's a UK based credit card and obviously the name on the card will not be the traveller? 

Has anyone ever done this?

I've done it before, but I don't think expedia will let you with a UK credit card.  When I did something similar, I used the airline's website direct and it went through.  It really depends who you're buying from.

My wonderful mom once booked a flight for me to come home and paid for it on her debit card.  She just put in my name as the traveller... and I had absolutely no problems.   

You should be able to. I don't think they care who pays for it! I once booked a flight for my husband from here (when he was still there) but I got it direct from the airline over the counter with no problems. I then sent the ticket to him by international recorded delivery but as you are buying online you should be able to have it sent to him but check the expedia policy on this ... some sites require that it be sent to the cardholder's address.

My parents used to do that for me all the time when I was in high school & flying by myself for different organizations I was in...  I'd just recommend going directly through the airline itself like Andrea said.  I think they've stopped check ins based on credit card (at least I know Continental & Virgin have) - you just show / scan your flight confirmation ticket or email and passport and you're good to go!

I've done it before, but I don't think expedia will let you with a UK credit card.  When I did something similar, I used the airline's website direct and it went through.  It really depends who you're buying from.

Oh, if that's the case, ask the airline to match the expedia price. Or try a local travel agent. I managed to get Travelbag to price match once when I was having problems processing a transaction on lastminute. I printed the details out and took it to Travelbag and they were able to match it. (fwiw, they sold it to me as a Continental flight whereas the online one was Virgin but when I turned up on the day it was a Virgin plane & crew anyway!)

just to clarify, I don't think the problem is booking for someone else- all sites will let you do that.  It's trying to use a UK card on a US site, which can be a problem...as far as I know, expedia.com won't let you do it because they want you to buy from expedia.co.uk (at twice the price!)  On other sites (some airline sites for example) it may not be a problem at all.

x-posted with Britwife!

eta- Carol, have you tried STATravel?  I know their UK site will let you use American credit cards, so maybe it works the same in reverse.

I'm trying to do it with expedia because we want him here NOW and we're looking for the e-ticket to save having to get involved with posting tickets overseas.

I've trawled through the expedia web-site and can't find anything that either says you can or you can't...

I'll try the direct through the airline route - duh!  never thought of that.

Thanks for the help though, i knew i'd get great feedback.

well, I totally be might be wrong about expedia, I admit- I haven't looked that closely.  But when I go to the expedia.com home page, it says

"It appears that you are currently located in the United Kingdom. Shoppers living in the United Kingdom who visit Expedia's U.S. site will not be able to purchase airline tickets or holidays. If you are living in the United Kingdom, please go to Expedia's UK site where you can purchase airline tickets and find content and promotions created specifically for our United Kingdom customers."

I took that to mean that you couldn't use a UK card, but they could be talking about something else!
 

Hello

Well, just to update you.

I managed to book the flights on Orbitz.com (expedia suddenly upped the price by $200) and when you get to the credit card and card holder details it gives you the option to enter a non-us billing address and it allows you to book the flight in a different name than the card holder.

So, SUCCESS!!! If i knew how to put on those tickers things it would say 8 days until he arrives.

Thanks so much again

That's great that it worked out!! Just for future reference, some airlines definitely don't allow this - Virgin won't. My mum pays for our flights out once a year (justifying it by saying that she isn't able to travel out to see us, and so it's fair - I'm not going to argue!!!) and we've actually had a hard time booking flights originating in the UK with a US credit card. Maybe it's slightly easier in reverse - a UK credit card to book a US originating flight?

BA have been really easy though - they'll always do the booking for us.

Thanks for the info AnneR, hopefully in the future things wont be soooo last minute that we can just transfer the funds to him and he can take his time booking tickets from the US.