bailmart

Good evening,

I am a flyertalk novice, but hopefully the United experts can shed some light on my experience that I had involving an award ticket. This past fall I was working with someone in a consulting engagement. This person and I led separate teams doing some IT projects. The engagement went very well and over the course of the project we became friends. As we were wrapping up our project, Mr. X mentioned that he was trying to book a ticket for his cousin so she could go to her sister’s wedding (I guess the cousin has almost no money and could not afford the ticket). I suggested he check for award travel because I had extra miles I would be happy to give him. There was availability and I went to the airport to book his cousin’s ticket to Australia. I paid the taxes and the ticket was issued.

Today I get a call from my friend saying that his cousin is stuck in the airport as they would not honor her reservation because of fraud allegations. She did not know my name when she checked in, we have never met, and they told her the only way she was going to Australia is if she paid for a ticket. I called United and told them the story and the only answer I got was the fraud department would be sending a letter in the next 5 days. I could not speak to a person in the fraud department and the decision was final.

So my friend’s cousin will now miss her sister’s wedding as she can’t afford the $2700 fare. I am not sure what I did wrong. When I booked the ticket I asked the agent if this was allowed and he assured me it was since it was a gift. No money was exchanged, nor was it in exchange for services. I just wanted to help a new friend out with miles I would most likely not use in the foreseeable future. I am not sure what to do and any advice would be greatly appreciated and I apologize for the length of the post.

cblaisd

Frustrating indeed!

This is why it is always a good idea to give the recipient a "gift letter," addressed "to whom it may concern" at UA, noting that you were pleased to give a gift of an award ticket ABC-XYZ to your friend Jane Doe (and with your MP #, date you went to the airport to authorize, the name of the employee you authorized it with, your MP#, and contact phone numbers for you that would work at the time of the person's check-in)

tom911

I frequently give tickets to family members and close friends, and often the last names do not match mine. I always make sure they have my numbers to reach me while traveling (home, cell, work), as well as my details and account information, just in case something like this comes up. There have been posts here over the years about mileage flyers being denied boarding when the airline suspects fraud. Ideally, the person using your miles should have had at least some basic information, if not a letter from you, to cover any eventuality.

UA is probably thinking she got the ticket on EBay or Craigs list, particularly when she can't provide any information about whose account the miles come from. Do you even know what she said to UA at check-in that might have caused her to be flagged?

You're pretty much at the mercy of UA. Probably too late in the day to get through to their corporate offices. Hopefully someone here with a good contact in Chicago will PM you the info as a starting point.

fastair

It is a very difficult situation to give advice to. Tickets are given to others often, and few have problems other than signing the bluey. From my recolection, the Australia awards (due to the high cost of flights) are "bartered" more than others, and C/F ones are bartered the most.

There is no limitation on who you give your miles to, but a gift through a 3rd party unfortunately puts the receipent in a bad position. My guess is that the CS agent at checkin would have had the fraud dept ask your friend a series of questions on the relationship between you and the user. By going through a 3rd party, it becomes almost impossible for this person to know ANY of the answers (like what is your name, how do you know them, was this ticket bought...)

This is not the solution to the problem, but a way to save people from this fate, do not go through 3rd parties. The value of a ticket from America to Australia given for free to someone you do not know in itself would arous suspision to many.

I appologize that this happened to this person and you. It makes a kind gesture on your part into a nightmare. Let us know how United deals with it in the long term.


Craig911...I am 98% sure she was flagged before she even steped up to the podium for checkin.

tom911

Interesting take, but then your rationale about the routing makes sense. It would certainly be hard for the person checking in under this scenario to "defend" themselves if they know nothing about where the miles came from.

Ari

That being the case, UA could have investigated in advance of the flight instead of screwing over the passenger upon arrival at the airport. @:-)

My 2 cents.

to UA on this one.

thebobmc

Ouch !!!

A very unfortunate situation when a persons generosity ends up in a big hassle.

I don't have any advice to offer. I have purchased tickets using miles for family and friends many times (not to Australia) and it never occurred to me that it might become a problem.

The previous suggestion of providing a "gift letter" makes very good sense.

It would be interesting to hear exactly what sequence of events at check-in led up to the current situation? People check-in for flights with award tickets all the time without it being a problem.

robb

This all seems way too nice to UA. They should send someone to Australia in F for free for this. That is totally unacceptable to corner someone at the airport and hold them up for $2700 when all of the policies have been followed.

I would not go through regular customer service, but try to get someone at WHQ to resolve this. Completely unacceptable and the burden should not have been on you after all the hurdles you had already jumped.

b33g

I recently used my miles to get a saver's award ticket for my friend's gf. I did it online and there are all these blah blah blah's to agree to.

Then after the booking, I called some agent and asked if I need to go to the airport to sign a bluey. Hearing so many scary stories just makes one nervous about these things. The agent assured me that it is unnecessary because I did it online. I guess agreeing to the terms and conditions online is equivalent to signing the bluey's at the airport, anyone???

Anyway, one day prior to the flight, I made sure that my friend's gf has my MP number and my name and my cell phone number, just in case she gets grilled. And she checked in online (it is domestic, so she could do that). I told her to just print the BP out and then go through the security line but should any one give her a hard time at the gate, she should call me or have them call me immediately.

She got onto the flight just fine. And she also completed the returning trip without any problem. I am so sorry that you, your friend and your friend's gf has to go through this. Anyway, fight your case and update on what happens next. Good luck....

tom911

I agree with you completely about that, particularly when the transaction (paying the taxes and ticketing) was done at the airport in front of an agent, and any questions could have been dealt with at that time. I still wonder, in light of that, whether the ticket user said something at the airport, as the OP is getting this info second hand. I do recall a post here a few years back where someone on an award ticket made some comments about the "great deal" they got on their ticket upon check-in and were not allowed to fly, but in that case it ended up being an award ticket that was sold. That is not the case here.

How can UA ever pay the ticket holder back for missing a wedding, though? They should have made some attempt to contact the account holder and verify the information. It appears they did not (at least from what is posted here) and won't even talk to him until the fraud unit makes contact within 5 days.

Does UA offer rewards to their agents when they catch people that they think are using fraudulent tickets?

hockeyguy

Or penalties when they keep someone with a legitimate ticket from flying?

hockeyguy

I have used award tickets for friends and relatives with different last names, and I have had the same experience (i.e. booking on-line --> no bluey necessary). Knock on wood, this seems to be one United policy that is actually pretty consistent. (However, I'd still follow the conventional wisdom of providing all the relevant info to the traveler, just in case.)

In fact, the first time I heard about this policy for on-line awards was when I called up to get an award ticket for someone else for a last-minute trip. The agent was very helpful, but when I went to have the ticket issued, she told me that I would have to go to the airport in person to sign a bluey. I expressed my dismay at having to squeeze in a 2-hour round trip to the airport in the short window before the flight just to sign a little piece of paper and the agent said, "IKf you book it on United.com, you won't have to sign anything". I was impressed that the agent actually volunteered this information to help me out -- my usual experience has been that you only get helpful tips like that if you happen to come up with the idea yourself and ask about it.

kv99

Agreed. There is nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with giving miles to a cousin of a friend that you don't know well.

If the OP is telling the truth, and we have no reason to suspect him, this is unacceptable. UA could have perhaps taken an affidavit that the miles were not bartered or sold, and put a lock on the OP's account pending an investigation rather than ASSUMING that the OP and passenger were engaged in a fraudulent transaction.

Write a letter to Glenn Tilton and copy Dennis Cary, SVP Marketing (in charge of Mileage Plus), and Pam Coslet (Customer Relations).

DO NOT LET THIS GO.

I am particularly sensitive to this issue, as I had an incident during Summer from Hell where I was flying with my sister from PHL to BKK (I was a new 1P, she had no status), and a friend of mine gave her upgrades...the stupid agent in Philadelphia would not believe that my friend would give my sister the upgrades even as I was standing right there validating all info.

Anyway we missed out flight to Chicago that morning and since the next three flights were cancelled we had to go to Asia the next day. Idiots....

vprp

I agree. For someone to miss her sister's wedding over something totally legitimate is unacceptable, IMO.

hockeyguy

I suspect that United handles these issues at the check-in counter because:

• In general, they would rather confront the purchasers of illegitimate tickets than the sellers because the sellers might be frequent fliers while the purchasers probably aren't. If you're going to make someone mad, it would be better to choose the person who isn't giving you legitimate business already.
• If the airline wants maximum leverage against people who have purchased illegitimate tickets, waiting until check-in and then telling them that they have to purchase a full-fare, last-minute ticket is the way to do it. By that point, the passenger probably doesn't have other options, and if they really need to get where they're going, you've got them in a tight spot.

If this is their philosophy, it's probably an effective one for tickets that are, in fact, illegitimate. However, as the OP and others on this thread have discovered, it's a horrible approach when the airline guesses wrong and prevents a person with a legitimate ticket from flying.

If the airline is going to use this ambush technique, they need to be prepared to make amends when they're wrong. They need to be able to resolve any issues quicky (i.e. no responses like "you'll get a letter in 5 days"), and they need to give anyone who has been denied boarding like this the highest priority in getting to their destination, even if it means free upgrades or accomodation on another carrier. If this is too high a price for the airline to pay, then maybe they should rethink their strategy to avoid the false accusations at the last minute with no recourse.

To the OP and anyone else who has run into this problem, you should absolutely report it and keep at it until you get an acceptable response/accomodation/etc. If the person who gave the award is a higher-level elite, it might be more effective for them to contact United, as they're the one whose business with United may be at stake.