You could be charged with fraud or forgery.

Maybe she would think differently after a couple of free upgrades?

Fraud.

Well said, and in such few words. Wish I could do that.

As noted above, this "stuff" is to be discouraged, and certainly not condoned, even if there is no prosecution forthcoming! Yet I agree that a fraud charge would not be out of the question!

And perhaps even more seriously, you'd likely forfeit ALL your miles too! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

How are you going to prove Fraud when using the same names. I have a neighbor who (not on purpose) is always having miles credited to the wrong account becuase his son happens to have his same name.

Ummm, if they told you about it and know it's happening, how could it continue to not be on purpose?

You can argue this is a "victimless crime" or "the airlines deserve it" or "they could never prove it", but that does not change the fact that it is fraud and fraud is a crime.

Heck, even the initial post indicated it's like doing 56 in a 55, that's a crime too.

As I was reading the original post all that I thought of was that I might be denied an upgrade because an infrequent flyer had been given it without having had to sit their butt down for a lot of miles on past flights. Any thoughts of the airlines never crossed my mine since I am not the airline.
So in retrospect if you are asking me than I will tell you that you are possibly cheating me. If you want to know what the airline is doing just ask them. Than why do you ponder why you are preselected seemingly more often than most?

Hello FTers,

Does anyone have any knowledge (not "urban legends") of anyone losing FF miles, etc. when caught doing this?

Thanks

Va.SquireFlyer:

Yes. I recently spoke with someone very senior at a frequent flyer program (and when I say very senior, you see there name on mass letters that people get), and they told me that they do shut down accounts. Generally, they will give someone a warning but if the person violates the program again, they will close their account. And they have in the past. I did not get any sense from this person how often it happens, but, rest assured, it does happen.

I think there was an article in The Globe and Mail (a Canadian newspaper) a few years back about a dispute between Air Canada and their TOP FREQUENT FLYER! and AC was either threatening to or had terminated his account. I'm sure the folks over at the AC forum will know the story.

Interesting point, but when I try to check in online at NWA.com, I get rejected because I've already been preselected. If I was sent to the "rubber glove search" after I declined to give out personal information, I might understand, but it appears that the preselection is done well before checkins for any particular flight begins.

Allow me to share a story with you:
For awhile I would regularly be sent for a secondary inspection by Canadian immigration any time I flew into Canada. As soon as I showed the ID of my employer at the time, the secondary inspection ended. But I asked the inspector why I was sent for the secondary, and he told me that at first I fit the profile of a drug dealer. He didn't tell me the exact nature of what tripped the profile, but I changed from casual to more formal dress for flights to Canada, and I guess that I looked the part better. At least the Canadians had the courtesy to tell me why I was constantly being singled out. Here in the "land of the free", my government is silent on who or what they are lookng for.

Beckles: My neighbors are upset about it and they keep on having problems. It is not what you think that all of the miles are going into one account but miles from various trips end up in each other's accounts. I still do not understand how this is called fraud.

Main Entry: fraud
Pronunciation: 'frod
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English fraude, from Middle French, from Latin fraud-, fraus
Date: 14th century
1 a : DECEIT, TRICKERY; specifically : intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right b : an act of deceiving or misrepresenting : TRICK
2 a : a person who is not what he or she pretends to be : IMPOSTOR; also : one who defrauds : CHEAT b : one that is not what it seems or is represented to be
synonym see DECEPTION, IMPOSTURE

As I believe was stated in a previous post, if you feel the need to ask others if what you are contemplating is OK, then you probably already have a pretty good idea that it's not and are just looking for something to help ease your conscience a bit. Why not do what you know to be right, rather than listening to what others with no real interest in you tell you to do. On the other hand, if you’re just worried about the chances of getting caught…

These next comments are not directed at thelostshark or any other FT in particular.

Has anyone else thought about how attitudes like "Well it's just a little lie" or "Hey it's ok to steal from big corporations because they're not people" or "It's OK to cheat the government" may be doing more long term harm to this country than any terrorist could ever hope to. The cumulative affect of this country’s decaying values over the past several generations is pretty evident today. Most kids learn values and morals from their parents, whether through direct interaction or more often simply by observing the parent’s actions. “Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” John 5.19. I’m not usually one to quote scripture but this one seemed so appropriate. I hope all you parents will think carefully about the examples you set for your children. I love my kids too much to want them to grow up as liars, cheats and thieves.

Now I'm sure there might be one or two out there that disagree and think I’m just some kind of right wing conservative family values nut ( no, I’m not Dan Quale ) that is deserving of the airlines cheating me out of extra bonus miles or upgrades. Frankly, I’ve never regarded the FF or hotel reward programs as anything but a little lagniappe. I’ll confess that I’m all for working within the rules to max out FF miles and hotel points, but honestly, these programs are not designed to be entitlement programs ( I’ll leave that to the liberals in D.C. Oops, maybe I am a conservative nut! ).

Stepping down off my soapbox now.

Ready, aim, fire!!

There are three kinds of people. The ones that learn by reading, the few that learn by observation, and the rest of us who have to touch the flame to see if it’s really hot.