BlaiseBOS

Experienced a major mixup (and personal data breach) from AA. John and Mary Doe's (not their real names) record locator was emal to me with a message about upgrade eligibility. I phoned AA to say that I should not have received info on other passengers' travel. We were traveling the same city pairs and share a first name, but that shouldn't be enough to cause their info to be sent to me. AA said they would take care of it. For these strangers' return travel I received their check-in notification and flight info, then I received a receipt for their day passes to the Admirals Club, charged to their credit card, but bearing all of my info (AAdvantage #, name, address, email, etc.), a copy of which these strangers also received, to their confusion. Note the strangers are no longer strangers, we have contacted each other via LinkedIn. Any thoughts on what the heck AA did to "fuse" my information into this other passenger record, time and again?

carlosdca

Any chance the no-longer strangers are catfishing you in order to fish info from you?

enviroian

WeekendTraveler

This has happened to me both on AA or US Airways (I forget which) and definitely on Amtrak--another passenger's information showed when I scanned my ticket. It's just an IT screwup.

carlosdca

Frankly, the best action here is just to ignore those emails, don't even try to contact the strangers.
For my own piece of mind, I would change my email password and check my aa.com profile to see that everything is correct , change my aa password and check the latest activity on aa and credit cards just in case.
All in this will take 15-20 mins the most.

Spam? phishing? AA IT screw up? who cares?

You don't save the world by contacting the "strangers".

Antarius

About once a year, someone posts that this happens. Apparently if the agent doesn't clear their screen or it doesn't clear, it can retain their old info (going off memory here, may be way off base).

Pickles

If you're feeling frisky you can cancel their flights, or change the dates, give them crappy seats, or something equally malevolent.

VegasGambler

Hopefully you'll get their miles after they fly

Antarius

Remind me not to piss you off!

whitewave

That is frightening and startling…

BlaiseBOS

Thanks, Antarius. That was the type of answer I was seeking.

Additional note: the strangers were in the same city pair as I, and traveled on the same days to the same tiny resort airport through the same connecting city. So it's a "small world" situation and no catfishing, etc. Just didn't make sense why out of the blue I started getting their info and they were getting mine.

hbtr

I agree with changing passwords and such but I would still want to know what is going on, and in the couple of cases where something like this happened and I contacted the other party (after contacting the vendor to convince myself it wasn’t a scam) we were both glad that I choose to take action.

OP, Any similarity between your email addresses? You mentioned contacting them via LinkedIn, do you know the email address they use with AA?

meechyathere

or upgrade them to First Class

vasantn

Best and most correct answer yet.

Man, that's evil. But not as evil as a late uncle of mine, who would answer to calls for "Joe" (say) with "Haven't you heard? Joe died last week!"

WeekendTraveler

Why be malicious, particularly for no reason? Meechyathere's post is the way to go.