Airline programs that will cancel tickets when using transferred points?
 

Pardon my ignorance here, but…

Is there a chart, list, or other resource for information about FFP’s that are likely to cancel a flight (or account) for people who have never flown a revenue flight - but attempt to book a ticket using points transferred from a credit card?

Example: I recently saw good redemptions on partner airlines when booking through Flying Blue, so I created a FB account. After that, I saw a thread where people’s flights or FB memberships were canceled due to having a (relatively) new membership or for not previously flying a revenue flight on KLM or Air France (before booking a flight using transferred points).

It would be great if there was some reference source to know which frequent flyer programs could be a problem for situations like that. Or is that simply a widespread policy with many FFP's?

At first, I thought this was so odd
 

Then I found a thread in the FB forum that talks about exactly this. The general response was that FB is particularly sensitive to people transferring credit card points especially if you accrued those points by activities that didn’t involve flights.
They also talked about the fact that the danger is greater if you’re using those points to get flights for others beside yourself.

I wasn’t aware of this myself, and I don’t know that there’s any way to check if other airlines do something similar without checking the forums for each airline.

squeakr - Thank you SO much for your reply! Based on what you said, plus the fact that nobody else is replying, perhaps other FFP’s are not as restrictive as Flying Blue?

I’d like to book a ticket (for myself) using my Capitol One points, but if FB cancels the ticket, would the points just sit in the FB account without being able to use them? Or if FB closes the account, are the points just forfeited (effectively stolen)? Seems like it’s not worth the risk. What a shame.

P.S. – I tried to provide a link to the thread, but the flyertalk system won't let me do it. If anyone else wants to see it, it's listed in the Flying Blue sub-forum, with the title "Flying blue account suspended".

More likely, most experts about each individual programme don't look in the Information Desk subforum so aren't even aware of your question.

Your best bet is to ask in the specific subforum for whatever programme you're interested in moving points to.

I generally agree, however there’s so much knowledge in this forum
 

And as the OP had questions about whether this was a general tactic, this was a smart place to start.

This was a thing many years back where FlyingBlue was known for doing this with new accounts that were hit with large transfers of CC points into the program to book flights. It was an anti fraud based action. In these actions some people were able to get their miles and even sometimes tickets back after verifying their identity and going through some steps. Others may not have.

Are you seeing recent reports of this? or old ones?

I've created accounts for family members and transferred in their miles to then have them log in, so different IPs, to book without issue several times the past 2 years so I'd say the risk is far less than it used to be.

You can also go about making accounts at the most popular C1 transfer partners to have them established for future use.

I did this last year (setup a new FB account, transferred points, and purchased ticket for an immediate family member) and didn't have any issues. The ticket was relatively small value 10-12K for a short hop flight within Europe. Just one data point so YMMV.

Edited to add: forgot we are in 2026, this was in 2024 so not last year :)

See https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-...suspended.html .

Thank you for starting this thread ignorant1 ,

In addition to Flying Blue, there are several threads about Air Canada playing the same game, to the extent that they've left passengers stranded in China. While I realize that China is fraud central, my opinion is that tickets booked with transferred in points should be honored unless the airlines have solid proof that their TOS has been violated. If AFKL or AC dislikes people who don't fly and credit flights to their frequent flyer programs, they should terminate their agreements with the banks.

The main reason I have flexible credit cards is because I'm able to convert points to miles in FFPs that I would never dream of earning miles by flying. I will continue to put flying miles in AA, DL, and UA because SQ, CX, JL, are terrible options unless you live in Singapore, HK, or Japan. If those airlines don't want us (or even scammers) to transfer in miles, that's their problem.

Switching topics, I didn't stumble upon the Information Desk subforum until about a year ago, but I think it's great resource. I check it several times per week, and comment on many threads, even if my message is to head to specific forums where the experts hang out. Those guys end up with double exposure without starting duplicate threads, which is pretty cool. I also want to point out that ID is the only subforum that gets a direct link in the forums directly. We shouldn't chastise anyone, especially newbies, who starts threads here.

VS is also known to be problematic with this. Definitely a concern with some programs

I'll add my experience for a data point. I also recall reading of a story like this some years ago where the booking was cancelled by AF.

I've flown AF/FB a number of times on points. Many of these points were transferred from UR and MR. My spouse and I also do family sharing of our points so I can be the one booking everything. I have also been the one cancelling the flight on them, and no issues there.

To be honest, I've never purchased a flight outright(on AF). It's always a point redemption but I'm also always on the booking too. It's not been a problem and I would raise holy hell if it ever were an issue. Points are cash equivalents as far as I'm concerned.

Other airlines I've only ever flown with on points and never a paid booking are Singapore Air, Egypt Air, TAP air, Swiss Air.
I'm probably forgetting someone.