Flying Blue (Air France & KLM) - Flying Blue Account Suspended

On Monday, my brother in-law arrived at CDG to fly on a ticket booked with my FB Miles only to find out that the ticket had been canceled. I contacted Flying Blue in the USA and they informed me that FB had canceled my ticket and suspended my (Platinum) account and nobody could tell me why. It's been 4 days now and I've been in contact with FB in the USA, Amsterdam and in Paris, sent numerous faxes and emails and yet no one is willing to tell me what is going on, only that someone will contact me when the investigation is complete. Has anyone ever experienced something like this before? I know that AF, KLM and especially FB are known for their awful service, but this seems a bit over the top:(

Unless you committed fraud in some way, shape or form I think this is one of KL/AF's infamous computer glitches.

I just recieved an email from them saying that my account is being audited. How long should this take to clear? Such a pain!

The main reasons for suspending an account would be some sort of fraud or selling of awards/miles. Perhaps you redeemed many awards for different people which triggered their audit. In general freezing someone's account should not cause too much grief except for not being able to earn/burn during an audit, but I realize that your brother in law being stranded at an airport must have caused a lot of stress. However, FF programs are free to do as they wish as stipulated in their T&Cs. Tomorrow FB could close shop and we wouldn't have any strong legal grounds to demand compensation:rolleyes:

Poor service yet again I'm afraid. If something like this is being done then the account holder should be warned in advance and certainly not when a beneficiary is mid itinerary. I appreciate its probably some anti-fraud thing but surely their systems should pick up the fact that x% of an individuals redemptions are going to someone else before the ticket is issued. If so, do the fraud check and suspend if necessary.

Has anyone experienced this before with FB? Any idea how long until this gets cleared up?

Hi damaxer91, you, better than anyone on this board, should have an idea of what is going on. This procedure is extremely unusual for AFKL, nerver read this happening before. So you must be involved in some serious fraud. Don't mean that you are necessarily guilty of it, simply that the matter is quite serious.

Aren't there some rules about booking tickets for others - like "immediate family only"? (I remember reading something about this, and I think it was a rule change from a more generous rule)

If there is such a rule then they shouldn't have accepted the booking in the first place.

I do not imply that this is what is happening here, but airlines have been quite active in catching people who have been selling awards on ebay and other websites (which is illegal as we all know).

Hi damaxer91, you, better than anyone on this board, should have an idea of what is going on. This procedure is extremely unusual for AFKL, nerver read this happening before. So you must be involved in some serious fraud. Don't mean that you are necessarily guilty of it, simply that the matter is quite serious.

I hope that didnt come out quite how you meant it to . To suggest that someone 'must be involved' in some 'serious fraud' is a pretty strong allegation .

I hope that didnt come out quite how you meant it to . To suggest that someone 'must be involved' in some 'serious fraud' is a pretty strong allegation .

Being victim of a fraud or having one's account audited as part of larger audit is being involved in it, without any implication of taking an active part in it.

Being victim of a fraud or having one's account audited as part of larger audit is being involved in it, without any implication of taking an active part in it. Ok , it must be another of those instances of being 'divided by a common language' ... if you said someone 'must be involved' in some 'serious fraud' in the UK or Australia or New Zealand it would very definitely imply that you considered them to be guilty of taking an active part in it ( and you would be asking for a punch in the nose if not a lawsuit ) . Today I have learned another important difference between American English and the real thing :D

Hi damaxer91, you, better than anyone on this board, should have an idea of what is going on. This procedure is extremely unusual for AFKL, nerver read this happening before. So you must be involved in some serious fraud. Don't mean that you are necessarily guilty of it, simply that the matter is quite serious.

That would be kinda hard considering that i've only booked about 20 Award tickets in the several years that my account has been active....

Gotta love people who get so much gratification out of trying to implicate people in such schemes. Those are usually the knid of people that hang out on CC

Today I have learned another important difference between American English and the real thing :D

Well, don't take my word for granted, but I am under the impression that involved mean either affected or implicated. And I suspect brunos might be using the same strange kind of English as I am :)

Gotta love people who get so much gratification out of trying to implicate people in such schemes. Those are usually the knid of people that hang out on CCNo need to be snidy. I know that brunos is one of the better informed FTers and I for one take his contributions seriously.

I know that brunos is one of the better informed FTers and I for one take his contributions seriously.

+1

Still very strange though. Did you in fact book award tickets for others on many occassions? If these people do not share your family name they can of course get suspicious that you are indeed selling the miles. Not too weird now, is it?

I think Bruno is saying that unless you provide more information on you own behaviour only you can deduce the reason for FB acting like it does. The only reason we can think of is the one mentioned.

Also, you may not know that FB has recently faced a significant fraud on some of its members' accounts.

Also, you may not know that FB has recently faced a significant fraud on some of its members' accounts.

Fact or possibility? If fact, do you care to elaborate?

Fact : http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-france-frequence-plus/995957-fishy-business-af-flying-blue-accounts.html

Ah, glad to see they caught the guy!





:D

damaxer91, sorry to hear about your troubles. I can't offer any specific info about FB, but there have been similar threads in some of the other airline forums here on FT. In many cases, the airlines have audited accounts by tracking down sellers on sites such as ebay or craigslist. In other cases where they have have had suspicions because of redeeming for people with different names, they have questioned the passenger on check in, with the assumption that a true gift recipient would know the at least the full name, address, phone number and maybe some more about the the giver of the ticket. Or they might have just flagged your account because the computer thought it saw a suspicious pattern, but almost all of the other posts I have seen regarding account audits fell into group #1 or #2 above.

In general, airline and hotel FFP program fraud/security departments have been reported to not be very responsive, and to often take several weeks before they respond or make any kind of determination.

Dunno, I've earned over 3 million miles on KLAF over more than a decade and have only redeemed perhaps 10 tickets, all for my immediate family, so I do suspect if someone books 20, and they are all under different names then it may flag something. Possibly your in-law gave a crappy answer at the airport, you never know.

Hi

Awards on FB are not limited to the immediate family. Per the TOS the member may order an Award either for himself or for any other person designated by the him at the time the award is requested.

As a matter of fact, if I remember correctly it has also be extended recently to upgrades, where it’s now possible to get an upgrade award for anyone you want: the upgraded traveler no longer have to be travelling on the same flight as the member.

So in short FB is wide open as to who you can treat with your own miles.

Best bet is to be proactive. Send emails and faxes to every FB customer service contact you can find. Ask for a supervisor at FB Canada or wherever you are based to accept a letter of concern on your behalf and do some digging.

If you are innocent, then its just a matter of time.

Back in '03, I had to suffer for 3 months during an Air Canada Aeroplan audit of 20 of my 'surrogate flyer' accounts that didn't even have ANY account activity yet...it was a preemptive suspension!!!! Suffice to say, I offered to fly to YUL, the AC HQ to clear things up and provide firsthand assistance/expediting of their investigation. Can you imagine, they actually declined. The accounts were finally opened and redeemed 4 million miles from these accounts (per third party access rule) with nary a peep from their Fraud Department.

Hang in there- be cooperative and transparent in your dealings with them.

Yes, we know that you can gift them to anyone you please, and that has been written on this thread several times, nevertheless if there are too many "different" names, most programs will investigate.

I reread my post and don't understand what justifies some of the comments (even in British-english). One can be involved in a case as a victim, a witness, an accused party, etc... Lawyers get involved in a case, as well as judges, police, experts; does not mean that they are guilty.

As stated above AF has been recently subject to at (at least) two publicly-revealed frauds: the one mentioned above; but also some employees organizing a secondary market for staff tickets (reselling cheap staff tickets to outside parties). It appears that AFKL is quite worried about the extent of a fraudulent market in award/staff tickets.

damaxer91, what I was saying is that these widespread frauds are the reason why AF is investigating suspicious accounts. Not saying that you are guilty of anything but simply that this is the origin of your problem. I also said that you are better placed to understand why your award pattern got caught in the net; we had no info (until your later post) to help you on that question.
Let me add an unhelpful note. it seems that the French police and judiciary is now involved in the cases (again not meaning that they are guilty). That might slowdown AF response.

this sounds fishy to me ... I booked a ton of award tickets for family before (no more than 2 for myself and maybe 10-20 for others) and NEVER had anything like this happen. Sounds like AF has some serious reason to believe miles have been sold or other abuses of FB rules ... did you do any hidden city or other semi-legal things?

BTW damaxer91, we can see from some other posts on FT that you have been trying to do things that can raise an eyebrow at AF, such as booking tickets (probably awards) in the name of a "friend" when you dont know his details (passport numbers, etc...) or transferring AMEX miles from a"friend" account to your SPG. My suggestion is to keep a low profile.

Aren't there some rules about booking tickets for others - like "immediate family only"? (I remember reading something about this, and I think it was a rule change from a more generous rule)

If there is such a rule then they shouldn't have accepted the booking in the first place.
The ability to upgrade was restricted when Flying Dutchman became Flying Blue (I was desperately trying to upgrade my sister's honeymoon flight up until the date when the rules changed and upgrades could only be given to children or spouses so was intimately aware of that change :(). Not sure if that's still the rule, but you can buy award flights for anyone - I recently bought a oneway on AF for a friend as he didn't have quite enough miles to do it himself.

The ability to upgrade was restricted when Flying Dutchman became Flying Blue (I was desperately trying to upgrade my sister's honeymoon flight up until the date when the rules changed and upgrades could only be given to children or spouses so was intimately aware of that change :(). Not sure if that's still the rule, but you can buy award flights for anyone - I recently bought a oneway on AF for a friend as he didn't have quite enough miles to do it himself.

This rule has now been relaxed and you can now use miles to upgrade anyone.

This rule has now been relaxed and you can now buy an upgrade for anyone.

You can "buy" and award for anyone, meaning that you can designate anyone. BUT you cannot sell the award or your miles to a third party.

Ok , it must be another of those instances of being 'divided by a common language' ... if you said someone 'must be involved' in some 'serious fraud' in the UK or Australia or New Zealand it would very definitely imply that you considered them to be guilty of taking an active part in it ( and you would be asking for a punch in the nose if not a lawsuit ) . Today I have learned another important difference between American English and the real thing :D

Whichever English you consider to be the "real thing" you've clearly defected to a foreign (somewhat French) punctuation format. Though punctuation placement can vary near quotation marks between American and Commonwealth English, neither shows a desire to add spaces before periods or on the concave side of a parenthesis.

If you care for my 2¢ on damaxer91's wording, I'd agree with Richelieu that it's not as accusative as instructive.

Fact : http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-france-frequence-plus/995957-fishy-business-af-flying-blue-accounts.html


Ok fraud is bad but there's a part of me that thinks its a refreshing change to hear passengers screwing FB for a change rather than FB screwing passengers.....:)

Well, in the case of that fishy business, it would be more FB members screwing other FB members...