kdinino

The title says it all. I've been caught "selling" miles to pseudo friends on NWA. They say they are "reviewing" my account and since a "fraud" occured may close my account. I sent NWA an email with the real reason--I needed the money very badly and was desperate. I didn't lie.

Now I realize that its against the airlines rule, but I needed the cash bad. Thats my excuse--albeit a poor one but its the truth. So I'm curious if anyone has ever had this happen to them and what the end result was. I can surely say that if they close my account and delete all my miles, I will never, ever fly NWA again. Seems like a big stretch to me. I basically gave my miles to someone who actually needed them and they paid me. I rarely use awards on NWA. God forbid I profit off of my blood sweat and a sore bum for flying NWA. With the labor disputes and crap service, this may be the straw that breaks the camels back and I might just stick to B6 out of NYC and be done by FF programs. Or just switch to CO or UA to try for Silver.

Im just wondering why NWA has to wait a week to tell me the bad news or not. So what's the chance they will reinstate my account?

Traveller

How did they catch you??

bnoble

I'd bet it's because many award tickets are booked originating in cities other than his/her own. It's not that hard to spot.

fromYXU

What you did is against the agreement you had with NW. They can, as a consequence, take your miles away. You seem put out by that!

Make your case and hope they will simply cancel the award ticket. But your attitude seems to be such that I can see NW simply taking the miles away.

Otherwise, enjoy flying B6.

kdinino

It was most likely the fact that Im in NYC and award tickets were taking place nowhere near NYC.

Im most likely put off due to the fact I got caught and will now lose all my miles and thus is there a reason to ever consider flying NW again? Probably not. I guess that was my point. I egenrate close to $10-15K in revenue in airline tickets, so Im not small change, but we'll see what NWA decides. I was really looking to hear from anyone on experiences where this happened.

I really wouldnt post if not. I know I'll get grilled by all the hardcore FF's. The part where they said it was a "fraud" was the part that had me puzzled.

Lehava

I am thinking you can probably get him to agree to do it pretty cheap, but I wouldnt count on winning.....he died on March 29, 2005. So thinking his cross examinations might be a little weak!!

http://www.cochranfirm.com/_Remember...nie_index.html

Traveller

Funny, I get alot of tickets for family/friends with different last names and different cities and I never get questioned... but that's on Delta... and the tickets were really free for my family/friends, I didn't even change them the service fees.

kdinino

Yeah thats the tricky part. One was a 100K award---the people already flew the flights but something must have caught afterwards.

I had no idea about Mr. Cochran dying. sad news indeed. I guess I really am screwed. So, I will keep you all posted on what they decide.

Traveller

If I were you, I'd beg, but I wouldn't tell them that "I'll never fly NW" again. Why would they not close your acct and take your miles if you told them that?

RobOnLI

I don't understand why several posters are saying it's because the OP used his miles to get award tickets for other people -- with flights that aren't anywhere near NYC.

Who cares? NW sure doesn't.

The only time I've ever used my miles is to get tickets for other people - sometimes it's involved my home city and sometimes it hasn't. NW has never once said anything to me or reviewed my account.

NW shouldn't care how you use your miles for award tickets or who they are for. Just in May I used miles to get my friend a ticket for IAH-MSP-MCI and then MCI-DTW-IAH. My mailing address is near SEA. They didn't question it and happily took my 25,000 miles. NW also doesn't know or care whether my friend paid me for the ticket or not (which I don't do).

I think there's something else going on here...

-RM

toadman

Seems strange that they would have singled you out unless they noticed a lot of tickets being issued to names that are disimilar. Not sure how they would have singled you out or even why they would have cared unless the person you sold the tix to made a comment to a NWA employee at some point during their travels.

Rogi

Goto be.....my family and I always use our FF miles for relatives (for free obviously ). Maybe the flyers squealed on the OP?

kdinino

Well maybe because it was done through a popular e-commerce web site? maybe I'm just unlucky.

I would NEVER tell NWA I didnt plan to fly them. I emailed them pretty much begging them to re-open my account and told them teh truth about why i needed to sell the miles. I simply told the FT crew here my stance. didn't say it was rational, but if my miles/status are gone--there's little incentive to continue to fly--esp knowing they are "watching" me.

Again, if anyone can relate or has some info on what will likely happen or has happened to a freind, etc. Pls let me know.

ironmanjt

Ditto. I've booked many tickets from many odd places for many different people who I don't share a name with. I'm really curious how NW caught you. I'm more concerned what might cause them to lock my account even though I haven't done anything wrong.

bigbrownboy

I'm no expert...but I believe I've read here in the past that there are employees of the airlines "watching" Ebay for things like this?