YOWgary

I guess AC feels there's enough of this type of activity going on to justify dedicating a position to sniffing it out...

https://careers.aircanada.com/jobs/5...ram-compliance

"The Analyst, Fraud - Loyalty Program Compliance is responsible for the prevention, detection and monitoring of fraudulent and non-compliant activities, mitigating the risk to the organization, taking appropriate corrective measures to address fraud, and performing ongoing data analysis to identify fraud patterns relating to Aeroplan assets and programs."

MSPeconomist

There's already a Senior Fraud Manager--Loyalty Program Compliance, and no indication whether this is a new position or a replacement.

It's interesting that the job ad starts with enthusiasm as a key characteristic (AC boilerplate, I assume) but doesn't mention good judgment or respect for evidence, although it does mention discretion and confidentiality.

Often1

Makes sense. FFP fraud is a direct hit to the bottom line. Not hard to imagine that the ROI for such a position is quite good. Note that the position does not appear to involve customer interaction. Thus, an investigator who produces a factual report. Not necessarily a decision maker.

canadiancow

My experience with "factual reports" like this from AC is that they're rarely factual.

I have no issue with the concept of this position, but I have serious doubts in their ability to execute.

One only needs to go as far back as Super Elite suspended; lawsuit filed but amicably settled out of court to find data that showed someone entering a lounge then canceling their ticket for the 2330 (times made up from memory) departure. The analyst missed the 0030+1 departure that was flown.

I often book myself in CO on the calf on points in J to events. Closer to departure, I verify he can attend. If not, I cancel him.

They might think I'm holding J space for an upgrade. I'm not.

Meanwhile if they've been "analyzing" for a while, I know so many people who have done so many things that should be so easy for anyone remotely competent to catch.

Meh

radonc1

Hopefully, for the vast majority of us here on FT, this is a snippet of meaningless information which causes no concern

Sopwith

And of course, none of us have ever felt defrauded by Aeroplan.

Sean Peever

Ya, but those aren’t really causing fraud in the loyalty programs directly. Like the case with the SE Suspended if I remember correctly was actually a revenue ticket that kicked it all off, and a key point was that it was lounge access which is not just a loyalty perk (credit card can get in, you can pay to get in, or higher fare tickets get in).

The 2nd example, they can (and do) already set it up where that space when released doesn’t always go back to be used again for upgrade or sale. So they can already mitigate that.

I mean, you guys are thinking pretty complex too, frankly this could just be a much simpler position to catch the people doing all the little tricks we know about that are flat-out not allowed.

- Like booking a rev ticket, cancelling in a timeframe, not flying the flight, and submitting for mileage credit and getting the miles because the systems don’t sync up correctly if you do it all in the correct timings.

- Or doing massive credit card purchases for the points, spending them, and then doing refunds on the credit card after and cancelling the card.

- Or how with some creative routings you can get 6,825AQM on a O/W $214 Latitude ticket comp-up to J pods. (Although it’s hard to argue fraud when the system does give it as an option to book online)

- etc etc.

There are a half dozen or more ways I can think of off the top of my hat to actually either get miles for not even flying, or getting far more miles than you should have, etc.

garykung

If you look at the position again, it is practically a data analyst job, even having a giant title.

Nothing to see here. Really.

Fiordland

Is any of this fraud? I would contend that with AC in control of the bank of points, in control of when and how points are allocated to a customer and in control of when points are spent we don't have fraud. What we have are poorly written (and in may cases unpublished) business rules that may have some edge conditions that are not what AC originally intended. That said, AC is the organisation that implemented the rules.

If AC has screwed up on implementing the program it is free to change the program implementation without our approval.

IluvSQ

I suspect the main targets would be people selling points/tickets. or earning points by crediting flights flown by others - outright fraud like that.

Often1

While this is said to be "new" for all we know, AC has many of these people and one of them retired, left, or died.

The bottom line is that nothing in the job description suggests that this person makes decisions or communicates them to customers.

RangerNS

Or the fraud detection could be targeting mismatched names on bookings and cards, the same card being used a lot, gift cards being purchased and then used minutes later from 1000mi or a class c away.

canadiancow

The position is specifically for the loyalty program.

Symmetre

I wonder if they have a fraud person looking into things like AC maintaining a fuel surcharge for years, even as global fuel prices hit rock bottom.

Fiordland

This may have also been a positioned that existed in Aeroplan and for some reason did not come over to AC when they purchased back the program.