Originally Posted by
lewinr
I was told it was to prevent credit card fraud, which sounds absolutely stupid since I wanted to use the same credit card I had used many times below to purchase tickets and pay taxes/fees on awards with KLM/AF. (not to mention that my account was open for more than 10 years). They insisted I come to the airport to ticket it, which was impossible for me.
The agent also refused to connect me to a supervisor, claiming "We aren't allowed to do that."
I had around 100k FB points in my account and finally I asked him to close my FB account and cancel all my points, because I would never fly AF/KL again. The agent told me he also couldnt do that and I should send a letter.
None of us can comment on the reasons why your transaction was flagged as suspicious, or why the agent may have had reason to suspect that s/he wasn't talking to the cardholder and intending passenger; I have held an Amex card for 10 years and it has been used in several fraudulent transactions over the years; the amount of time I have held that card [and its subsequent replacements], or an unseen person's ability to quote my card details over the phone or online, doesn't mean that no fraud can ever occur on that card.
Flying Blue is a frequent flyer programme, and although FB makes no restrictions on the residence of its members, nor places any requirement to accrue a certain number of sectors on either AF or KL to obtain status, it doesn't seem *too* onerous an obligation to ask a frequent flyer to pop by an airport ticket desk every once in a while. If the alternative is making it so much easier for people to skim other people's FB accounts, then I am all for it.
However, and granted that we may all be prone to occasional piques of rage from time to time,
asking verbally to have your account closed and all miles forfeited is INCREDIBLY SUSPICIOUS. Why would a person who apparently couldn't convince FB sufficiently of their identity then be allowed to close that very same account? It is a condition of FB (as I imagine it is of most, if not all, frequent flyer programmes) that notices of termination must be in writing - precisely to prevent such instances of people having their accounts closed by others. And if you WERE the owner of the account, why would you willingly throw away such a comparatively large amount of miles, rather than, say, donating them to charity? At least that way, someone other than just Flying Blue would get the "benefit" of your tantrum.