Have you ever 'made' miles?
 

Hi,
My name is Marathon Man and I'm a miles addict.

:D

This thread is about situations where you may have completely faked it. I'm not talking about fudging your income on a credit card app, but OK, that'll do too.

Here's my first one:

Years ago I had printouts for a shopping for miles portal transactions I thought I had done with Staples and Northwest Airlines.

It would have earned like 1,250 miles.

The problem is that I had mistakenly done these for a family member but we didn't need the miles credited to his account. I screwed up on log ins and had neglected to do the transaction within my acct. (Yes, this family member was aware of all of this)

Printouts that I tended to save on all shopping portal transactions would have included the page where one enters their NWA number, the page that shows what the bonus will be per $ spent, and the store transaction and confirmation email pages. I would have also saved the shipping receipts and when the miles posted I would have thrown these papers away.

Note: at the time, NWA was having some problems with an older system for shopping portal and partner credits. One had to call in or email about missing miles a lot in those days. They eventually fixed it right before the DL merger/

Well, I wasn't seeing the credits post to my NWA account so I started a new transaction and I entered my NWA number in the field. I printed this and it shows in gray on the paper. I later pasted it onto the original page from my family member and had it photocopied at a local Staples because their professional machines are better than mine.

When emails from the airline had told me these miles were supposed to credit to another person, I mailed them everything and they did in fact give me the miles. It eventually led to a flight, as everything we do does add up.

:D MM

Well my justification at the time was based on how this airline used to constantly lose and or botch shopping portal mileage postings and so yeah I guess I felt I had to!

so go sue me.

Now...let us please see some other people post things they have done. And if you wish to change the thread title why not just go start your own. Be sure to tell us of your own ill doings too.

In the meanwhile...let the games begin!

Given the fact that there are lurkers from various credit card, mileage and hotel programs on FT I don't think posting information glorifying questionable (and sometimes borderline fraudulent) methods that people have utilized to earn miles/points is a very wise decision.

Posting this sort of info is how loopholes get closed and programs wise up. As much as I would be interested in hearing these stories as well I think this sort of info is better shared via PM or while trading war stories face to face.

One more thread “Airline closed my account without any reason” is in order.

Granted that airlines and their shopping portals perform very poorly in terms of awarding miles earned, and granted that their customer service is incredibly inefficient and ineffectual in actually granting the validly-earned miles once you draw their attention to the problems, it is still probably wrong to force miles out of them this way.

Two wrongs don't necessarily make a right, even with the airlines.

Even with [Yankee Ingenuity / Typical Yankee Lack of Moral Compass] (pick one) on your side.

So if I'm reading the OP's deal correctly - he screwed up on an NWA shopping portal purchase and submitted altered paperwork (with the use of actual paste and an actual copy machine....not "copy and paste") to NWA to try and fix the mistake?

Using the system to its fullest, optimizing, churning it for every point... it's all well and good.

This kind of scam however, has no place here.

What the OP did was fraud, plain and simple.

Posts like these just brings the name of Flyertalk into disrepute.

Ok. What I did is one thing but what I sense in here from like 99 percent of the respondents is this:

Anger, bitterness, a total disallowing for discussions about anything beyond their sense of norm, and flaming. Heck I tell my 4 year old to stop saying the word Stupid but it was used here too.

All this thread has turned into is a definitive list of who I won't be sharing (valid) tips with in here. I also think many of you wish you were on Law & Order because I even sense enjoyment over the remarks being presented to me.

It is for this reason alone I am going to ignore everything going forward and quit subscribing to the thread of posting in it. Maybe if you all do this too it will no longer be on top. Then no airline will see it.

I don't regret my NWA thing or what I said about it but see ya all later. Its been real...not nice

I wouldn't go so far as calling this fraud, as the OP didn't get any extra miles, just redirected them. But that's a fine line. Perhaps the OP could have called NW and just admitted the truth? Would they have fixed it? I guess we'll never know.

However, I do see this as emblematic of a major societal issue. People don't take responsibility for their own actions and mistakes, and won't accept the consequences of such actions. I see this very much like people who back up on the freeway when they miss their exit instead of just going to the next one. Or book a flight on the wrong date and blame it on the web site when they know full well it was their own mistake. If they would just accept the consequences of their mistake and move on, everyone would be better off.

Mahasamatman, from reading the original post, the OP is not clear if he received miles as well as the relative or if he just received the miles.

There's complying with terms and conditions and there's not accepting the consequences of a mistake made (as you so eloquently stated). However, I would go so far as to call the action fraud (definition: an act of deceiving or misrepresenting) although a legal claim of fraud would be a challenge (as miles don't belong to a customer). That said, the miles could very easily be removed / account suspended. While I don't have the NW T&Cs at the time, most airlines have pretty consistent policies in their mileage programs. Here's a few snippets from the airline where the mileage balance would have been transferred after WorldPerks ceased to exist:

Mileage Credit Rules & Conditions:

Altered or illegible documents will not be accepted. Alteration of documents or other attempts to obtain mileage credit to which the member is not entitled are prohibited.

SkyMiles Rules & Conditions

Delta reserves the right to terminate your membership in the SkyMiles program at any time if you violate the SkyMiles program rules, any term or condition of Delta's contract of carriage, Delta's fare rules, or any other Delta rules and regulations that apply to your travel. Termination of your membership will result in a loss of all accumulated mileage credit in your account, the cancellation of any unused Awards or Award Certificates, and the loss of all other SkyMiles benefits. Terminated members are not eligible to participate in any aspect of the SkyMiles program, including without limitation any special promotions or SkyMiles partnership offers. In lieu of termination, Delta may at its sole discretion deduct mileage from your account, but permit you to continue participating in the SkyMiles program.

Keep the Game Honest
 

Come on people - what is the fun in cheating the system? If you do so you are no better than the crooked district attorney in my town who flies on stolen Southwest airline vouchers. Who wants to be known as no better than a damn crook?

Create yourself a miles earning masterpiece that stands up to public scrutiny. Become the Picaso of Pudding or the Monet of Money.

MM - go to the mint with your wheelbarrow and sin no more.<g>

Back on topic....


My dad retired some years ago, before I started doing any serious flying and when "miles" meant something quite different to me.

He had accumulated (as I recall) 60,000 BIS/RDM, but wasn't planning on flying much, if at all (and he has been on exactly one round-trip since then). Why waste the miles, we thought.

I was named after him. After a quick consult with pops, I called AA and spun a small lie, convincing AA I was my dad. I received a new password, logged into aa.com, and the rest is history (of a particularly mundane sort, but hey...).

That was a bingo.