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is it illegal to hire someone to fly under your name?

is it illegal to hire someone to fly under your name?

Old May 13, 2009, 2:02 pm
  #16  
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Originally Posted by brooks5018
this would make a nifty money-making operation for your frequent flying friends. i wonder if they can book a ticket in their name, i get a refundable ticket and go through security. cancel the refundable ticket and fly with my friend's ticket.

thoughts?
'tis a very very bad idea. see below

Originally Posted by wharvey
and... I am pretty sure the airline would close your account and confiscate your miles if they ever caught you.
agreed (and in a heartbeat)
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Old May 13, 2009, 2:20 pm
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yes definitely illegal. could be done easily though if 2 people had the same name. like if my name is joe smith and my dad is joe smith sr.
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Old May 13, 2009, 2:23 pm
  #18  
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Originally Posted by RooseveltL
I great idea in theory. As you can obtain miles, or have an alibi if you murder someone, etc. HAHA

However, the plan fails if your flight is detoured or emergency situation and everyone needs to recheck into security area. While this is infrequent it can happen with summer storms, mechanical difficulties, etc. so your flight from DFW to ORD is landing in ST. Louis and must show ID to check in to different aircraft.
Automated CheckIn Systems make life so much easier
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Old May 13, 2009, 2:25 pm
  #19  
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How can the airline you fly on confiscate the miles of a 3rd party/airline Frequent Flyer Programm ?

They could notify they respective airline etc etc... no clue where that would lead to
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Old May 13, 2009, 3:45 pm
  #20  
 
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Originally Posted by Fly4SCUBA
On a related note, why don't airlines allow you to purchase a ticket, not fly and get the miles? This would benefit the airlines because they then could either resell the ticket (this could be built into the agreement if the person does not fly) or fly without the added weight of the person and his/her baggage.
Because then there would be nothing to stop you living in EWR and buying el cheapos around the world without having to be there.

Certain routes/markets on certain dates/times are cheaper because UA wants to encourage people to fly them, not to buy EQMs on the cheap. Think about the arbitrage opportunities if airlines let you do this: You could simply buy tons of el cheapos you had no interest in flying, then take the miles and redeem them for premium/expensive tickets. MRs sort of do this, but there are limits. You can't find a super-cheap sub $0.02 CPM fare, then buy 10 of them, one day after the other, with no intent to fly.
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Old May 13, 2009, 3:49 pm
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the simple thing would be... you buy the ticket, have someone fly, but you be in control of their FF account and the miles... it's worked before
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Old May 13, 2009, 3:58 pm
  #22  
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Originally Posted by thezipper
the simple thing would be... you buy the ticket, have someone fly, but you be in control of their FF account and the miles... it's worked before

Doesn't work if your primary purpose is getting annual status and accumulating enough miles for lifetime status. They would get the status, not you.
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Old May 13, 2009, 4:13 pm
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What about marks put on boarding passes at security? Granted sometimes it's just a swipe of a black pen. No problem. But I believe I've seen stamped marks a few times. I'm assuming the friend's ticket would be in your pocket and the friend wouldn't be there to go thru security before passing it on....

I find this an interesting discussion though. I wouldn't want to be identified as traveling under someone else's name though. Illegal or not, I don't imagine a night of fun with security.
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Old May 13, 2009, 4:21 pm
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To get both of you to clear security, you need to have checked in with your airline.

Can you cancel a ticket (even if it is refundable), after having checked in?
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Old May 13, 2009, 5:04 pm
  #25  
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There used to be a black market for airline tickets before they started checking ID. You would see classified ads "DFW-LAX, Male January 14-29" and naming a price.

The conspiracy theorists quickly assumed the airport ID process was put in place to stop this kind of activity. Of course, frequent flyer programs were much more generous back then so it might have been worth it to get people to fly for you.

As to the OP, you could probably get away with it, but you're asking for trouble doing this in the current security climate.
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Old May 14, 2009, 12:31 am
  #26  
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Originally Posted by bsb21
To get both of you to clear security, you need to have checked in with your airline.

Can you cancel a ticket (even if it is refundable), after having checked in?
Yes, for example on UA you can cancel your check-in online and then all for the refund.
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Old May 14, 2009, 1:16 am
  #27  
 
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Talking

Originally Posted by Travelergcp
There used to be a black market for airline tickets before they started checking ID. You would see classified ads "DFW-LAX, Male January 14-29" and naming a price.

The conspiracy theorists quickly assumed the airport ID process was put in place to stop this kind of activity. Of course, frequent flyer programs were much more generous back then so it might have been worth it to get people to fly for you.

As to the OP, you could probably get away with it, but you're asking for trouble doing this in the current security climate.

You brought back memories of the great 80s
No need to toss you return tickets but sell it through the local new papers.
As student, it was a great way to fly or get back home on cheap!
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Old May 14, 2009, 1:33 pm
  #28  
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Originally Posted by djk7
It's certainly against airline rules, but as far as illegality is concerned, no posters have yet cited any law that would be broken.
Without citing a specific law, I think it's clear to me that this is fraud, obtaining something of value through deceit, which is illeagal as far as I know.

Originally Posted by trekkie
But its not something that i would discussed openly until stricter controls are in place to kick out the airline revenue protection reps.
Quite frankly this comment disgusts me, I don't believe you understand the purpose and spirit of what Flyertalk is really all about.
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Old May 14, 2009, 1:44 pm
  #29  
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Assuming that it was a turn without leaving the sterile area, yes it would work. But very, very shady and there are some hidden risks. Suppose your a/c on the return goes out of service and you are either put another airline or forced to spend the night somewhere before returning (again assuming there was not an alternative flight/routing that day), which would probably require showing identification again. This would include checking into any hotel unless you want to sleep on the airport floor.

And anyone who would do this and rely their trust on such a dishonest person is probably asking for trouble in the long run.
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Old May 14, 2009, 2:48 pm
  #30  
 
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Originally Posted by aaron1262
yes definitely illegal. could be done easily though if 2 people had the same name. like if my name is joe smith and my dad is joe smith sr.
One of my friends, we'll call her Jan, has two sisters and I kid you not they are also both called Jan. So for years they were sharing a single FF account with one of the larger European carriers. Unfortunately they got caught out because one of the Jans was boarding a plane in London while another one was in the air. This flagged their account and they lost all of their miles and status instantly. They tried to claim it was a mistake but the airline investigated and found that only one account had ever been registered and they had been doing this for some time. Now they are all banned from this particular airline's FF program.

So the moral of the story is, don't try and game the system it'll only end up costing you in the long run.
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