Nazdoom

Hi everyone. Freaking out now.

i have a partner award (business class on Hainan) starting today (leaves in 6 hours). I am currently in Taiwan and going back to Canada after a stopover in China.

When I woke up just now I checked my ticket on the Alaska website and got an error message saying it had been cancelled. I'm on the phone now and they are saying I had called today to cancel the reservation. I haven't called Alaska in weeks and certainly not to cancel this trip... I haven't even logged into their website in a week.

They are trying to reinstate the ticket (not believing I didn't cancel it) and say that one leg is now unavailable (the long haul to YVR from SZX).

1) What happened, why is this happening?
2) Am I protected / do I have any recourse to ensure I keep my itinerary?

Thank you! Very scary thing to wake up to.

CDKing

Don't give up. Demand that they buy a revenue ticket if necessary. This is Alaska's fault for not doing more verification before allowing a caller to cancel. There is a lot of fraud in the Chinese ticket market. It usually manifests within a few days of departure where some third party will cancel bookings so they can be resold using stolen miles or something like that. Its related to the recent 3 day booking ban on intra-asia bookings. My first experience with it was Air China where many United airlines members had their First/Business class bookings cancelled last minute.

Some details about it. I'm guessing sooner or later AS will reinstate the block on all travel

https://pointmetotheplane.boardingar...ic-jal-hainan/

Here is the FT thread:

AS Limiting Award Bookings T-3 Days of Departure [Intra Asia Only] (CX, JL, HU)

Nazdoom

Thank you. It really bothers me AS was refusing to acknowledge that I did not cancel it. No matter how many times I tell them, they keep insisting I may have done it accidentally or during checkin... I didn't OLCI or even go to the AS website or app until I discovered this! I didn't even get sent an email about the cancellation.

They managed to get the first 2 legs rebooked (I just now flew the first one) and told me to call back tomorrow so they can work on the others (they said HU office was closed when I called at 2PM China time). It's been an absolutely ridiculous situation and nobody at Alaska wants to own it. Already spent 120 minutes on the phone, long distance at my own expense while they keep me on hold, without so much as an apology. Now I need to spend more hours on the phone to resolve this instead of enjoy my vacation. Sketchy stuff happens in China, yes, but it's your ticket stock and you should own your ticketing and cancellation procedures. Especially since they've known this is an issue for a year now.

As a consequence, I lost all of my seat selections.

And nothing at all prevents this from happening again on the rebooked ticket. Way too much stress today.

Nazdoom

I called back and they are absolutely refusing to help. They rebooked me to Calgary instead of Vancouver and 2 days later than original. They've asked Hainan to open space back on my original itinerary but say it can go either way.

I asked what if Hainan doesn't open space and they said I am stuck on the flight to Calgary. They refused to buy a revenue ticket or look into routing on CX or JL.

Supervisor keeps rejecting that this is their responsibility. I asked her to review the call and she keeps saying to file a police report for identity theft and that the call log won't make a difference. I asked her which jurisdiction the police report would even be in and she said I should get a lawyer...

What. The. Hell.

Is there no way to get this fixed by a higher up? She said she is final or I can write in to alaska voice but may not get a response in time. 4 hours on the phone today and it is now 2AM. How is this acceptable?

tom911

Does Alaska record its calls? I know in my police comm days everything we did was digitally recorded and instantly accessible, and as long as you could tell us when the call came in we could find it - a couple clicks of a mouse and we'd be reviewing your call or making a copy for someone with legitimate need. If Alaska has a note in your booking showing when the booking was cancelled, and does record their phone calls with reservations agents, should be easy enough to find it. The trick is finding the employee that wants to invest some time in sorting it out. I wish I could direct you to who that employee might be now that you're at an impasse.

I do recall a number of posts over on the UA forum about itineraries with China award travel being magically cancelled and the very same complaint you're making today. 21 different FTers posted their experience there. Might be worth a look to see if something jumps out there that could be of value.
2014 UA Issued Awards on Air China (CA) Are Mysteriously Being Canceled (Hacked?)

Nazdoom

Thanks. After pressing her to listen to the call log she instead determined it was cancelled online. Done at 5am China time while I was fast asleep. I really am at an impasse and they really don't care. I wish someone had an email address of someone higher up who would be willing to look into it. You would think this is a significant issue they would want to work to prevent. Instead, they treat me like crap and tell me I need to go file a police report to get them to review what happened... Because they'll respond to a Chinese subpoena right? Lol.

rustykettel

VegasGambler

I'm not sure if this is good advice, but if this was me, at this point (after AS refuses to rebook you) I'd buy revenue tickets in the same flights for the same class of service, for whatever they cost. I'd then go after AS for that cost (including SCC if necessary)

I have no idea if I'd be successful (which is why I'm not sure if it's good advice) but if they were unwilling to rebook me, it's what I'd do.

You have a contract with them and they are not fulfilling it. The fact that someone tricked them into cancelling it is their problem; you are not responsible for their security breaches.

tom911

Take a look at some of the contacts/e-mails that Chris Elliott publishes for Alaska.
https://www.elliott.org/company-cont...aska-airlines/

tom911

I wonder what info they track when a booking is cancelled. For my tech friends, would it be plausible that Alaska has access to the IP address the booking was cancelled from? Would something like that at least show if it was cancelled in a different city than Nazdoom's hotel, or a different country for that matter. Some other info Alaska might track when you cancel on-line?

Nazdoom

I reccomended they check the IP log and cross reference against whoever booked the space that got stolen. They really don't care to. When we believed it was done by phone and I asked her to review the call recording, the supervisor's words were "even if it was someone else they would have needed your information that they got from you or they stole your identity and you should file a police report instead. We have done everything we can do for you, you need to file a police report and seek legal counsel." She also made a snide remark that the fraud team may or may not be looking into it and she won't convey the message as "that's not related to this call".

The vibe from all of this was that they seem hell-bent with the notion that I cancelled it (either directly or through another person). I don't know why that would make any sense for someone to cancel their ticket same-day as departure (at 430am), not even pay the cancellation fee to refund the miles and $$, then at noon call frantically and spend 4 hours on the phone over 3 phone calls to rebook the exact same ticket (same flights and dates), and to also have non-refundable hotels and plans for the dates consistent with the booking. If they cared to check logs they would know I didn't even login or access the Alaska website during the week prior to when I found out, nor did OLCI, and it is impossible to telepathically cancelled by accident. Then they switch to a narrative that I am a victim of fraud and need to go to the police and they can't even say which jurisdiction's police to go to -- they say to get legal counsel to find out. In other words, they are giving the full run-around.

EmailKid

I took the liberty of starting a new *Flame Free* thread for 2019, This thread is sooooo 2018.

rustykettel

tom911

Many police departments let you file reports on-line. Take a look at your home police department's website and see if you can do that. It would be a good place to start.

You might also want to ask the moderators to spin this topic off into a thread of its own so it gets more attention. There's already 15 posts on your specific issue.

williwaw

Curious to hear how this unfolds for you in the end. Let us know what you learn! Good luck!