Account audited asking for proof of address
 

If you are thinking of purchasing miles_ think about it-again.
I joined alaska air a few mths ago and purchased miles during the last buy up I then transferred 25k to the account so i could redeem a first class award.
I went to book it and the website said to call alaska. I called and got customer service and they said they want a proof of address with drivers licence.
I do not have a current DL
I offered a passport ( which obviously has a date of birth)
they refused
I feel very unsafe in continuing this account
I checked all the details they are all perfectly correct

they are now sending the pts and supposedly the money is being returned for the purchased miles.
so I will be paying the currency conversion fees twice ,as well they said they will not give me extra.
has anyone else had this problem/ if not do a test booking and make sure your accounts are not under audit.



Per your request, your account has been restricted to prevent certain online transactions and award redemptions. Please contact Customer Care at 1-800-654-5669,Monday-Friday, between 8:00 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. (PT) for assistance.
for a start this is incorrect I did not request.

Setting up an account and buying a ton of miles in a short span will set up red flags on many carriers. I'm not sure what the ID part is for.

I can certainly understand some proof of identity and address verification, but requiring a driver's license as the only form of proof is nonsense (and could have been a one-off by one particular agent and/or there could be more to the story).

My first thought about legitimate address verification is for, i.e., bogus Club 49 registration.

I don't know what club 49 is.
I didn't buy a ton I bought 40k with my own cc and ended up with 56k 2 mths ago and sent 1 lot of spg .
not really any reason to flag an account.
I offered bank statement and pp in my name
nup wouldn't accept that got to a supervisor who said nup.
I am at present writing a consumer complaint to the washington state AG.
may as well give them some grief.
its going to cost me plus i lost the first class ticket syd lax ny.
they had every right to query,if all didn't look right
but what was wrong about my account
they were not right to not hold the flights when the miles were clearly there
whilst they made enquiries the flight should have been kept on hold.
as far as I am concerned they have not kept to the contract.

if they want proof of address they should ask for that when joining someone not 3 mths later when they have miles in the account.

here is my 2 yrs of activity

Available Miles: 81,000
Sort by:Select Activity Type.Select Sort by date or activity type.Select Time Period to sort by.
Activity Date Activity Type Status Miles Bonus Total
11/29/2013 STARWOOD HOTELS & RESORTS
STARWOOD POINTS TRANSFER Credited
25,000 0 25,000
09/12/2013 POINTS.COM
POINTS.COM INSTANT POINTS Credited
56,000 0 56,000
Note: Depending on the partnership, activity will appear on your account 30-60 days after you have earned miles. If you do not see activity after 60 days, contact Mileage Plan.

It's to safeguard against credit card fraud. AS has experienced considerable fraud where people open a Mileage Plan account, then immediately use a fraudulent credit card with Points.com to buy miles and stock the account for quick ticket purchases on Partner airlines, usually 100,000 miles or more.

The fraudster usually has ads on Craigslist or other online services offering to sell international tickets on the cheap. They get the name of the buyer - who pays them cash - then convert the miles into an international Partner award on a carrier like BA for that person which gets ticketed for travel within the next day or so.

It's like an attempt at "mileage laundering." Side note - they're almost always traveling to Lagos, Nigeria (LOS).

Anyway, by the time the actual cardholder realizes fraud has occurred and reports it, the transaction gets flagged at the point of sale - Points.com - and they try to rescind the miles. By that time it's too late; the miles have been redeemed, turned into a ticket, and the ticket buyer has already flown.

While the credit card companies almost always make their cardholders whole in the event of fraud, AS is still on the hook to BA (or whatever partner carrier the miles were used on) for the cost of the transportation they provided in good faith.

Thank you for the logical explanation! :-:

The miles were purchased 3 mths ago so i didn't use them immediately and after 2 mths you cannot dispute a credit card.
then I moved my own pts from spg,
and as we know spg will not put pts into an account that is not the account holder.
I offered them the credit card statement with my address on it and the passport what more can they want from the purchaser of the pts?
and the ticket I was purchasing was for late october 2014
so the whole senario is not what you have pictured.
All reasons I am so shocked that this has happened,
causing me untold grief as all my travelling companions have booked their first class flts
and i have nothing as it was only one F seat and by the time I called them today and realised they and not secured the seat it had gone.

But it isn't a logical explanation for the utterly unreasonable refusal to accept alternative ID.

The OP made all reasonable efforts to address the underlying issue, and AS continually acted unreasonably.

Only thing OP might have done better is to try calling again the next day to find a CSA or sup who was willing to find a way to be reasonable.

I didn't say the end result for the OP may have been fair or just. I am referring to the rationale for the procedures in place.

I can see no rationale for auditing an account with 1 lot of buy miles and an spg transfer which we all know is almost impossible to send spg pts over to an american airline if a different name.
I have tried in the past and it sits in cyberspace and then you have to ask for it back . I am sure AS is quite aware of this.
had I even had any other type of mileage credit I can maybe understand but this is ridiculous.
anyway enough said just wanted anyone thinking of buying alaska air to be careful.
not everyone has a drivers licence and I think that can be faked a lot more than a passport. so I see no rationale in needing a DL.

The perfectly logical explanation, which may have worked some unfairness in the particular case of this one OP, isn't going to satisfy the OP, so no use in arguing any further.

Air carriers lose US$100's of Millions / year to various forms of FF fraud, so they are careful.

OP is free to complain to whomever she wants. This is the response she will get.

I feel sorry for the OP. It is quite a puzzle.

There may be lots of fraud around, but does not explain why the OP's account was targetted. I have not heard of needing to verify address with a driver licence, in relation to airline program. What is that supposed to do? If the credit card in question is the issue, why not get the credit card company to verify with cardholder?

(I have never flown with Alaska before. I did open an account, purchased miles, then redeemed an international business class ticket without any issues.)

not sure why people would go to the trouble for that for 2 free bags "when traveling from and to Alaska"

and 2 discounts on the highest coach fares available when traveling from Alaska. I believe you have to originate in Alaska for the discounts to work or at least that would make sense

They needed an address verification which is why they wanted a DL and not a passport.

+1 - At least US passports, don't have an address on them. Simply a place where you can write yours in so that you might get it back if you lose it. The fact that you have a passport doesn't have anything to do with an address.