There are few places where you need to show proof of the credit card on file. The rare occasion this happens is usually when doing a return at a store. So they can refund the right card. Or maybe at a hotel. Though if you’re on a business trip, you may not even be the cardholder.
So when Delta pulled this on a group of travelers, they were confused. The fiasco turned the group trip to rural Uganda into a financial nightmare.
What Did Delta Ask?
In a TikTok video with 30,000 views, content creator @ho_ho_hoarder says Delta trapped a group of six people from Florida in an impossible situation.
In a since-removed video, @ho_ho_hoarder explains that the travelers had spent more than six months planning their trip to Uganda for a wildlife excursion, cultural immersion, and to support a rural school. The round-trip flights totaled nearly $8,000, more than a third of the entire trip budget.
“Delta Airlines is trying to steal nearly $8,000 from us. And I don’t really know what to do,” she says in the video.
@ho_ho_hoarder goes on to say that when the group arrived at the airport to check in, Delta employees told them they couldn’t proceed without presenting the original credit card used to purchase the tickets. But that card had been lost in August (after the tickets were fully paid off) and was subsequently canceled.
Not only did the card literally not exist anymore, but the TikToker says the group was also never warned about this requirement. No emails. No messages. Nothing.
The Ultimatum
Instead of sorting things out with the credit card company, as many commenters suggested, she says Delta gave the passengers an ultimatum: Purchase new tickets or miss the flight.
“Thankfully, a woman in the group had this credit available. And she repurchased the tickets for around $7,600,” @ho_ho_hoarder explains.
She says that Delta employees assured them the original tickets would be reimbursed. But when they returned home, she says there was no reimbursement waiting.
“Upon calling the airline, Delta employees are saying, ‘You can’t be reimbursed for a trip that you took,’ even though Delta is the one who made us pay for the tickets twice,” she says.
She says the woman who fronted the $7,600 now faces a billing period deadline with no help or hope from Delta, despite the airline causing the entire situation.
“Me and the other people in this group don’t just have an extra $8,000 laying around in cash,” @ho_ho_hoarder says. “Yet Delta has provided no offer of help or hope in this situation that they caused.”
Delta’s Controversial Policy, Explained
Delta’s requirement to present the original payment card isn’t new. But it’s been causing more problems for travelers in 2025.
The policy creates particular problems when someone else books tickets for travelers—parents buying for children, employers purchasing for employees, or friends coordinating group trips. Even if the traveler can prove their identity with passports and driver’s licenses, Delta may still demand to see the payment card.
According to Thrifty Traveler, Delta is the only major U.S. airline with this little-known policy. Alaska, American, Southwest, and United don’t have similar rules.
The policy states that travelers may be required to show “the credit or debit card used to purchase the ticket” along with photo ID to receive boarding passes.
But Why?
It’s designed as an anti-fraud measure. But Delta provides almost no information about when it might be enforced.
Fodor’s reported in October 2025 that Delta “seemingly revived a decades-old rule” that dates back to before modern credit card security features existed. Back then, airlines routinely required passengers to present physical cards at ticket counters. Today, with multilayer authentication and advanced fraud prevention technology, most airlines have abandoned the practice entirely.
They seem to enforce it more on international routes, where fraud concerns are supposedly greater.
The enforcement appears arbitrary. Delta states that “most customers in most instances will not have to show the card.” But it also offers no clarity on what triggers the requirement. The airline declined to provide specifics, saying only it’s “limited in what it can say” due to “proprietary business and security considerations.”
Commenters React
“Dispute the original charges with the credit card company under ‘services not received.’ There’s already a process in place for situations like this,” a top comment suggested.
“Simple – get the credit card and delta on a call together, they can work it out. It’s happened to me before, and not uncommon with large purchases … it’s nothing new and sucks, be mad at people who do fraud and caused these issues,” a person said.
“Airline companies continue to disappoint us all,” another wrote.
BroBible reached out to @ho_ho_hoarder via TikTok direct message and comment and to Delta via email. We’ll be sure to update this if they respond.