AS Cancels EK Award Tickets for My Friend [Possible Merge]
Feb 12, 2019, 4:25 am
#46
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 8
Is ALASKA setting us up for a horrible change to their Mileage Plan?
Hi, I was looking for advise & help from the people on this forum to see if what this supervisor said could possibly be true. Not only did the supervisor clearly, empathically and repeatedly state that we, as members, were NOT permitted to use our miles for “others”, she said whoever books the flight is considered the “travel arranger”. She also said if someone had the same last name as the member OR if we were on the same itinerary, alaska MAY let it slide, but it was still technically a violation of terms & conditions. Additionally, ANOTHER customer care agent named “Deborah” emailed the same thing. She wrote “you must use your Mileage Plan account as a personal account only for your ticket only. If you need to book reservations for other passengers, I suggest that you set up an EasyBiz account for business”.
It’s very scary to me that 2 agents would say this, put it in writing and on a recorded call. It feels to me like Alaska is setting this up to make a change... otherwise how could 2 agents be so blatant as to go on record with these statements & actually cancel a woman’s ticket! FYI, it’s been several days and I have yet to receive the call from the fraud department as promised. They also still charged my card almost $80 for the taxes for Kim’s mileage ticket.
It’s very scary to me that 2 agents would say this, put it in writing and on a recorded call. It feels to me like Alaska is setting this up to make a change... otherwise how could 2 agents be so blatant as to go on record with these statements & actually cancel a woman’s ticket! FYI, it’s been several days and I have yet to receive the call from the fraud department as promised. They also still charged my card almost $80 for the taxes for Kim’s mileage ticket.
Feb 12, 2019, 8:28 am
#47
Join Date: Sep 2008
Programs: A3 *G, AA exePlat, AS MVP 75k Gold, JL sapphire, UA silver
Posts: 4,035
Agreed. At the very least, if there's suspected fraud/stealing miles, AS should definitely send a notification email to the account holder.
It sounds to me like the agent who said that policy prohibits Mileage Plan members from booking flights for others was just wrong, perhaps simply misspeaking or perhaps making up an explanation for something they didn't understand (something that is fairly common in the airline industry but not something I often encounter with AS). But I'm glad that it now seems pretty clear that this was an overzealous fraud alert, not a new policy.
Any chance @missydarlin could shed light here, particularly on why there was no notification to the account holder of the suspected fraud?
It sounds to me like the agent who said that policy prohibits Mileage Plan members from booking flights for others was just wrong, perhaps simply misspeaking or perhaps making up an explanation for something they didn't understand (something that is fairly common in the airline industry but not something I often encounter with AS). But I'm glad that it now seems pretty clear that this was an overzealous fraud alert, not a new policy.
Any chance @missydarlin could shed light here, particularly on why there was no notification to the account holder of the suspected fraud?
AA ambush passengers at gate..
Feb 12, 2019, 12:03 pm
#48
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: YYF/YLW
Programs: AA, DL, AS, VA, WS Silver
Posts: 5,951
Hi, I was looking for advise & help from the people on this forum to see if what this supervisor said could possibly be true. Not only did the supervisor clearly, empathically and repeatedly state that we, as members, were NOT permitted to use our miles for “others”, she said whoever books the flight is considered the “travel arranger”. She also said if someone had the same last name as the member OR if we were on the same itinerary, alaska MAY let it slide, but it was still technically a violation of terms & conditions. Additionally, ANOTHER customer care agent named “Deborah” emailed the same thing. She wrote “you must use your Mileage Plan account as a personal account only for your ticket only. If you need to book reservations for other passengers, I suggest that you set up an EasyBiz account for business”.
It’s very scary to me that 2 agents would say this, put it in writing and on a recorded call. It feels to me like Alaska is setting this up to make a change... otherwise how could 2 agents be so blatant as to go on record with these statements & actually cancel a woman’s ticket! FYI, it’s been several days and I have yet to receive the call from the fraud department as promised. They also still charged my card almost $80 for the taxes for Kim’s mileage ticket.
It’s very scary to me that 2 agents would say this, put it in writing and on a recorded call. It feels to me like Alaska is setting this up to make a change... otherwise how could 2 agents be so blatant as to go on record with these statements & actually cancel a woman’s ticket! FYI, it’s been several days and I have yet to receive the call from the fraud department as promised. They also still charged my card almost $80 for the taxes for Kim’s mileage ticket.
Just from the big print, EasyBiz is targeted at businesses and corporate travel planners. Directing you as an individual to EasyBiz is again plainly wrong. Alaska really needs to clean up this mess, at the very least by ensuring that all your miles and all the taxes you paid Alaska are returned. Unfortunately, I think your case to have Alaska cover cash expenses you paid to other companies due to their screw-up is not very strong. But I think that Alaska should send you a fairly decent sized pile of miles as a customer service gesture. I don't really have any advice about the best way to proceed to get Alaska to do their job about this; frankly, this level of awful customer service is outside my experience with Alaska.
I really doubt this portends a policy change; I think it's some combination of confusion and confused agents.
Feb 12, 2019, 12:04 pm
#49
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: YYF/YLW
Programs: AA, DL, AS, VA, WS Silver
Posts: 5,951
It depends whether they think this is a case of a cracker stealing the miles or the account holder selling the miles. If the former, an email to the account holder's email address on file (especially if that email address hasn't changed recently) is appropriate. If not, then yes, they're most likely to catch the fraudster if they don't tip them off.
Feb 12, 2019, 12:27 pm
#50
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: SEA/ORD/ADB
Programs: TK ELPL (*G), AS 100K (OWE), BA Gold (OWE), Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat
Posts: 7,763
Feb 12, 2019, 1:25 pm
#51
Join Date: May 2008
Location: "the world is my country"
Programs: Alaska 100K (aka OWS)
Posts: 811
I was in London last weekend, using expressVPN as I always do when I travel, and I purchased a one way F ticket on BA for my daughter, no problems at all. Perhaps its because she was on my profile? Different last name, but I've used my miles to book her tickets for years without any issues. This thread is worrisome - if we can't use our miles to purchase tickets for friends and family, then my reason to keep Gold75k has just diminished (tickets on gold miles do not incur a change fee, thus are very helpful for booking tickets for college kids etc). Please keep us updated - sometimes I can't keep up with all the changes that AS does to their members.
Feb 12, 2019, 2:11 pm
#52
Join Date: Nov 2017
Programs: AS 100K, HH Diamond, SPG/Marriott Gold
Posts: 189
Just from the big print, EasyBiz is targeted at businesses and corporate travel planners. Directing you as an individual to EasyBiz is again plainly wrong. Alaska really needs to clean up this mess, at the very least by ensuring that all your miles and all the taxes you paid Alaska are returned. Unfortunately, I think your case to have Alaska cover cash expenses you paid to other companies due to their screw-up is not very strong. But I think that Alaska should send you a fairly decent sized pile of miles as a customer service gesture. I don't really have any advice about the best way to proceed to get Alaska to do their job about this; frankly, this level of awful customer service is outside my experience with Alaska.
I really doubt this portends a policy change; I think it's some combination of confusion and confused agents.
I really doubt this portends a policy change; I think it's some combination of confusion and confused agents.
Feb 12, 2019, 2:46 pm
#53
Moderator: Alaska Mileage Plan
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 12,318
An extreme case like this is more likely an anomalous anecdote than foreshadowing of a program change.
What's known (award ticket, partner flight, gifted to a third party, in Africa, redeemed at the last minute, VPN), on top of one or two attributes we don't know, can be enough to freeze a PNR pending further explanation.
What's known (award ticket, partner flight, gifted to a third party, in Africa, redeemed at the last minute, VPN), on top of one or two attributes we don't know, can be enough to freeze a PNR pending further explanation.
Last edited by dayone; Feb 12, 2019 at 11:58 pm Reason: Clarity.
Feb 12, 2019, 9:47 pm
#55
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: SEA
Programs: AS G100K, DL PM, IHG Gold, HHonors Diamond
Posts: 843
This is a worrisome trend. I have booked tickets for my family and relatives using my miles because I am a G75K whom won't pay penalties in the event of award ticket cancellations. So far I have not encountered any problems, probably because I am a long time MP members, fly a lot on AS, and I don't buy miles. But if we are not allowed to,use miles on families and friends, this represent yet another major de-valuation of MP.
May be we all should write to AS to clarify this issue, and if not true, they need to stop their agents from making up incorrect stories on the fly.
May be we all should write to AS to clarify this issue, and if not true, they need to stop their agents from making up incorrect stories on the fly.
Feb 13, 2019, 9:20 am
#57
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Seattle, WA
Programs: AS MVPG, 1MM
Posts: 377
It is hard to figure out what is really happening as we graciously take everyone's view as fact when there might be something left out of the discussion, I don't know. What I do know is that I have bought over a dozen tickets in the last two years with my miles ( and two tickets on future flights) for friends, unrelated to me, do not work with me, not on the same ticket with me, just friends and not once have I ever had a problem. The only problem for me is the amount of miles I need to burn for whatever destination they or we are going to.
Feb 13, 2019, 9:44 am
#58
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: Over the Bay Bridge, CA
Programs: Jumbo mas
Posts: 38,631
It is hard to figure out what is really happening as we graciously take everyone's view as fact when there might be something left out of the discussion, I don't know. What I do know is that I have bought over a dozen tickets in the last two years with my miles ( and two tickets on future flights) for friends, unrelated to me, do not work with me, not on the same ticket with me, just friends and not once have I ever had a problem. The only problem for me is the amount of miles I need to burn for whatever destination they or we are going to.
Feb 13, 2019, 9:55 am
#59
Join Date: Apr 2017
Programs: AS 100k, DL PM, New Sagaya
Posts: 1,291
This does sound a little like the challenges many had with Flying Blue when they went super aggressive in fraud detection. In that case and I assume here, it was largely a problem for those that never flew AF or KLM or a partner. With Flying Blue they were freezing a reservation (in some cases cancelling) at time of booking and directing customers to visit a ticket desk. Those impacted in this case were UR point users who never flew Flying Blue partners and then ran into challenges.
That said I did recently book 5 tickets with AS miles on FI for myself and extended family. No problems. But all miles were earned on AS and I’m MVPG.
That said I did recently book 5 tickets with AS miles on FI for myself and extended family. No problems. But all miles were earned on AS and I’m MVPG.
Feb 13, 2019, 11:07 am
#60
Join Date: Sep 2001
Programs: Alaska Tanzanite 100K
Posts: 3,858
I'm presently assisting an airline with a similar issue to what's going on here. But I can *assure* you, even though I don't work for AAG or know anyone in their corporate security department, that just using a VPN isn't *enough* of a flag to warrant a review/cancel/etc. Its a NUMBER of factors. But using a VPN that's seeing high Mileage Plan bookings/redemptions is just *one* of the flags or triggers. That doesn't mean that using my OpenVPN for Fresno or Eureka, CA (for example) will trigger a cancel. Its just ONE thing they are monitoring.
Delta uses the same algorithms for when it went after, and fired, employees for using Delta SkyNet access for loads on Facebook groups & other places, including sharing their login to non-Delta staff & employees. Two concurrent logins lock your account. GoGo does the exact same thing, although GoGo is a bit more transparent in saying you can only use 5 devices in a month. It doesn't make public the fact it has geographical zones (to prevent sharing of your login).
So if you have a history with Alaska - MP membership with *accrual AND redemption*, actually FLY Alaska - you are fine.
Its the accounts with only redemption activity and non-airline earnings or little airline earnings that are on a high-risk list for fraud.
Delta uses the same algorithms for when it went after, and fired, employees for using Delta SkyNet access for loads on Facebook groups & other places, including sharing their login to non-Delta staff & employees. Two concurrent logins lock your account. GoGo does the exact same thing, although GoGo is a bit more transparent in saying you can only use 5 devices in a month. It doesn't make public the fact it has geographical zones (to prevent sharing of your login).
So if you have a history with Alaska - MP membership with *accrual AND redemption*, actually FLY Alaska - you are fine.
Its the accounts with only redemption activity and non-airline earnings or little airline earnings that are on a high-risk list for fraud.