Travel agent charged with stealing miles...

Steve in Olympia · Jan 11, 13, 9:29 pm

An Associated Press article today, dateline Bellevue, Washington:

"A former agent at a Bellevue travel company was charged Friday with stealing nearly 3.7 million airline miles from high-end clients, then using them to buy plane tickets for herself and her family. ... According to a wire-fraud charge unsealed Friday in federal court, Yeakel used the airline miles to buy 135 flights for herself and her family, worth more than $109,000."

(For that number of miles, it doesn't seem to be a very favorable redemption rate!)

Here is the full article:
http://seattletimes.com/html/localne...ickets12m.html

MSPDeltaDude · Jan 11, 13, 9:38 pm

That's pretty decent. ESP if lots if domestic coach tickets.

phdtomd · Jan 11, 13, 9:43 pm

Wow, That's insane! That's why I do my own booking. It is frustrating (especially with the wife) but rewarding.

travelisfree · Jan 11, 13, 9:50 pm

Meaning she created them an account and didn't tell them? Then knew the password and book flights?

Bored_Russian · Jan 11, 13, 10:01 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by phdtomd

Wow, That's insane! That's why I do my own booking. It is frustrating (especially with the wife) but rewarding.

We must be married to the same person.
Does yours fuss when you ask to call reconsideration line, but first question after booking tickets "Is it first or business?"..

Happy · Jan 11, 13, 10:02 pm

Apparently the internal control in her former employer was very poor as the cheating started in 2005 (fraudulent usage of clients' CC) and the stealing of miles started in 2008. The whole thing did not blow up until 2011!

moondog417 · Jan 11, 13, 10:51 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bored_Russian

We must be married to the same person.
Does yours fuss when you ask to call reconsideration line, but first question after booking tickets "Is it first or business?"..

+1

jbminger · Jan 11, 13, 10:55 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bored_Russian

We must be married to the same person.
Does yours fuss when you ask to call reconsideration line, but first question after booking tickets "Is it first or business?"..

lol! Glad to know I'm not the only one!

shoreline · Jan 11, 13, 11:03 pm

fraud and mere inactivity is the reason why everyone really should log into their accounts at least 1x per month.

surprising how many people have no clue about when or why their accounts go inactive or their account was used by someone else for reward bookings (usually someone they know who they gave their password to).

jphripjah · Jan 11, 13, 11:08 pm

She only got 2.94 cents per mile. That's not great.

Wiirachay · Jan 11, 13, 11:14 pm

~27k per itinerary. Little disappointed she didn't burn the miles on business/first class tickets.

pantanal · Jan 12, 13, 12:26 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bored_Russian

We must be married to the same person.
Does yours fuss when you ask to call reconsideration line, but first question after booking tickets "Is it first or business?"..

flatus · Jan 12, 13, 2:55 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bored_Russian

We must be married to the same person.
Does yours fuss when you ask to call reconsideration line, but first question after booking tickets "Is it first or business?"..

+1

satman40 · Jan 12, 13, 6:24 am

I doubt she cared about the cost per mile, and many of the really do not care about the miles.

The same G's that arrested her are the same group that has deteriorated housing values by 40% and are now taking $40.00 a week from your paycheck to supplement their spending, and buying favors, much like the travel agent...
Kind of like the pot calling the kettle black.

redtop43 · Jan 12, 13, 6:52 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bored_Russian

We must be married to the same person.
Does yours fuss when you ask to call reconsideration line, but first question after booking tickets "Is it first or business?"..

I guess I should have known I wasn't the only one!