Singapore Airlines stole my miles
 

I'm having a frustrating issue with Singapore Airlines, and would welcome any advice.

I flew from London to Brunei via Sinapore and back. At the time of my flights, I did not supply my Lufthansa Miles & More number (another star alliance member). But about two weeks after returning, I went to the Lufthansa site with my eticket number and boarding passes to claim the miles.

M&M checked these, and said that they couldn't give me the credit, because the miles were already allocated elsewhere.

So I contacted Singapore Airlines, who said that they had been allocated to my Nippon Airways account. This was a surprise to me, as I do not have a Nippon Airways account and have never had one! They said that I needed to contact Nippon Air to have them reverse it.

I contacted Nippon Airways, who said that the account had been setup online, and that someone had immediately claimed the miles using my eticket number. But they couldn't reverse it. Singapore Airlines had to do that.

So I contacted Singapore Airlines. After a long pause, they wrote and said that I should contact...Miles & More. I said that was unacceptable. They are now thinking again, but I'm not hopeful.

Clearly, someone at Singapore Airlines has sent a "friend" eticket numbers and unclaimed flights to that they could use them on third-party airlines. It looks and smells like fraud. But Singapore is not taking any responsibility and seems unwilling to act.

This is ridiculous. There has to be a way of reversing incorrect or fraudulent transactions. It is not like I'm trying to transfer miles between different accounts. The Nippon Air account is not mine.

Other than continuing to complain and play ping-pong across multiple programmes, any ideas on how to resolve this?

Welcome to FT, this sounds like either someone had access to your reservation who then added the FF # or there is an anomaly somewhere along the line. So you're responsible as to protect your info, ref number and ticket number etc, did you post the information online like instagram or FB? I think you are scrood!

And BTW, why would SQ do this? Who gave them the friends contact info?

"Clearly, someone at Singapore Airlines has sent a "friend" eticket numbers and unclaimed flights to that they could use them on third-party airlines. It looks and smells like fraud. But Singapore is not taking any responsibility and seems unwilling to act. "

Tell you you'll report it to the Singaporean police for an investigation into fraud and see if that motivates them to do something

Ha ha ha.............Singapore Police? :D

Which is why I always provide my FF# at check-in and double check to make sure that it is credited to the correct account.

I definitely didn't post it anywhere. The only sources possible are 1) SQ 2) my company, or 3) my company's travel agent. But 2 and 3 wouldn't have known that I hadn't supplied my number at check in (which is what I usually do).

I have a bad feeling that they are going to say that their systems don't allow miles to be reversed once allocated to another airline.

Oh, in answer to the first reply, I'm thinking that someone within SQ scanned the system to find cases where there were high-mileage flights that hadn't been credited to any account. They then gave the eticket number and my name to a friend, who claimed the miles.

That could be paranoia, but someone had to actively open a Nippon Air account, and file a claim using my eticket number. It wasn't a misallocation or computer error.

^^^ Thats what any frequent flier will do!

Yes it does sound like paranoia, I have been flying over 30 years and never have I ever had this issue. And btw, posting here will not help. Deal with the airline in writing and Twitter, reach out to the higher up's. Once it is resolved share the outcome on FT.

Outside from the constant "Nippon Air" mistake, my other problem here is...the guy who "stole" the miles would also have to have the same name.

James Smith can't simply claim the miles for Brenda Davidson. Otherwise one member from a family could retroactively claim all miles for a family trip flown. Or a company could claim all the miles for all of it's employee's flying.

I can't say I have a solution here, it sounds like there was some glitch, but I do like a good wild goose chase with accusations of theft thrown in the mix.

So the flight was booked through a human being at your company's travel agent, and you didn't provide a frequent flyer number at the time of booking?

I think a good possibility is a travel agent representative was trying to be helpful (and screwed up).
A lesser possibility is that a travel agent representative recognized that there are lots of bookings with no frequent flyer number entered, and they tried to make use of it.

I think it's very unlikely that "Singapore Airlines stole" your miles.

Seems like I'm in the minority here, but I do think there is a possibility of fraud here. Don't have any answers for OP, but it is possible someone saw a LHR-SIN-BWN itinerary that depending on fare class could earn 15K+ miles, and set up an account under OP's name to get the miles and redeem them on a short haul award for a "family member."

I think ANA restricts redemptions to listed family members, so maybe get in touch with ANA and get the login information for "your" account and see if there are any designated "family members"? This may not get your miles back, but would at least give you control of the account or give the police a lead?

Besides a rogue SQ/travel agent, maybe someone picked up a used boarding pass or itinerary printout out of the trash?

My advise is be patient in dealing with SQ and hopefully they can fix it, maybe you need to escalate but calm down and don't accuse SQ of theft. Had a somewhat similar situation but not exactly.

I had a few EK flts and provided my AS FF # on boarding pass and ticket. On checking a few mos. later no credit for a few segments on AS. I contacted AS and they said it has been credited to EK so I sent over my e-tkt and boarding pass with AS FF # and AS promptly credited AS miles and I ended up with double credit on EK and AS for a few segments. AS has consistently superior customer service.

for what its worth, i once had an MU FF account, which i never used. i always credit my flights to my AF account, but once, i had to do a quick checkin at the airport kiosk, and the kiosk automatically linked it to my MU account based on my phone number.

as i was in a rush, i didnt key in any FFP number thinking i will just do a retro claim after the flight but yea stupid system automatically linked it to my MU account based on phone number.

they wouldnt reverse it, called both AF and MU. HUCA multiple times and finally got an AF agent who said that if i can show proof of the closing of MU account, they will be able to then credit the miles into my AF account.

which was what i did, called to close the account, got an email confirmation, forwarded it to AF and the flight was retro-credited into AF few days later.

not sure if it works the same for ANA/SQ

3) sounds like the most likely/fishy. The travel agent has all your flight details. Probably the agent (or the agent's 'friend') were trying their luck that you didn't enter your FF# at check in, and scored a goal. If your ticket was a full fare ticket you'd earn a decent amount of miles for the return trip you flew, enough to redeem a short-haul flight. I'm not familiar with ANA's scheme, but even SQ's scheme (and almost all others i think) will allow you to use your miles to ticket a flight for someone else. In your case you probably earned maybe something like 15k miles? On SQ's chart that's enough for a one-way between Singapore (or Bali) and Manila!