Man Charged w/ Pretending to be Airline Employee, Fraudulently Booking Non-Rev Travel
Jul 11, 2014, 12:39 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: SAN/LAX
Programs: UA Gold, VX Silver, HH Gold, Hyatt Gold, JPM Palladium
Posts: 627
Man Charged w/ Pretending to be Airline Employee, Fraudulently Booking Non-Rev Travel
Gilbert Myers is scheduled to be arraigned on federal fraud charges today. He was finally busted after meeting with an undercover FBI agent and allegedly trying to sell a fraudulently booked airline reservation, but that was after he booked and sold hundreds of these fraudulent flights on a number of different air carriers.
http://www.justice.gov/usao/cac/Pressroom/2014/084.html
The indictment alleges that fraudulent travelers utilized Myers’ services to fly in and out of Los Angeles County airports by pretending to be in-flight crew members employed by other airlines. To obtain boarding passes and stand-by tickets (for which airline employees pay little or nothing, hence non-revenue), Myers called the victim airline’s reservation call center and gave the victim airline’s representative the name of a traveler, the airline he supposedly worked for, a bogus employee identification number, and a date of hire. Myers typically lied to the victim airline and said he worked on a flight crew for another airline, according to court documents.
Myers advised the fraudulent travelers to avoid detection by dressing appropriately and responding to questions about their employment at another airline, the indictment alleges.
Myers advised the fraudulent travelers to avoid detection by dressing appropriately and responding to questions about their employment at another airline, the indictment alleges.
Jul 11, 2014, 1:12 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Pittsburgh
Programs: MR/SPG LT Titanium, AA LT PLT, UA SLV, Avis PreferredPlus
Posts: 31,008
So booking non-rev travel on another airline is on the honor system? Airlines never validate the name/employee ID/hire date of the passenger?
"hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses." will be an interesting point. Actual loss or opportunity cost loss? If it's non-rev standby, then the flights weren't full. What's the actual loss other than a few bucks in fuel and wear/tear. At least, that would be my argument if I were the defense attorney.
"hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses." will be an interesting point. Actual loss or opportunity cost loss? If it's non-rev standby, then the flights weren't full. What's the actual loss other than a few bucks in fuel and wear/tear. At least, that would be my argument if I were the defense attorney.
Jul 13, 2014, 8:04 pm
#3
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Durham, NC (RDU/GSO/CLT)
Programs: AA EXP/MM, DL GM, UA Platinum, HH DIA, Hyatt Explorist, IHG Platinum, Marriott Titanium, Hertz PC
Posts: 33,857
You'd think airlines had learned from the lessons of Catch Me if You Can but I guess they did not.
Jul 13, 2014, 11:50 pm
#5
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 100,413
So booking non-rev travel on another airline is on the honor system? Airlines never validate the name/employee ID/hire date of the passenger?
"hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses." will be an interesting point. Actual loss or opportunity cost loss? If it's non-rev standby, then the flights weren't full. What's the actual loss other than a few bucks in fuel and wear/tear. At least, that would be my argument if I were the defense attorney.
"hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses." will be an interesting point. Actual loss or opportunity cost loss? If it's non-rev standby, then the flights weren't full. What's the actual loss other than a few bucks in fuel and wear/tear. At least, that would be my argument if I were the defense attorney.
OTOH can a shoplifter claim that no one else wanted the merchandise or would have paid full price for it?
Jul 14, 2014, 1:42 am
#6
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 743
The loss is based on what the co-conspirators (the travelers) would have paid the airlines for these flights had they bought them legitimately. The marginal cost to the airline is irrelevant. Presumably the travelers would have bought tickets like everyone else. (well, given that this is FT, everyone who is not traveling on an award ticket 
)
Hard to imagaine why someone thought they could get aways with this for long. So many co-consiprators; word was bound to get out sometime.
)Hard to imagaine why someone thought they could get aways with this for long. So many co-consiprators; word was bound to get out sometime.
Jul 14, 2014, 3:37 am
#7
Join Date: Dec 2010
Programs: Whatever gets me there faster.
Posts: 746
This is an interesting situation. Based on how he booked, it's treated as an OAL employee, or one of their beneficiaries, and since the passengers are treated as OAL, they have to have monetary proof of buying the pass (ID90/ZED,) which is done from an employee's company pass bureau, or their representative.
Of course, they also mention (possible in mis-understanding) that he booked these other people as 'flight crew,' which, to me, implies jumpseating. The only catch here, though, is that even if you're jumpseating, you still have to check in with a gate agent, and that gate agent still has to verify your company I.D.
Regardless of the vague reporting, something's definitely fishy here. At some point in time between entering the airport and getting on the plane, either a valid form of payment must be presented, and/or credentials must be checks. What happened to due diligence here? The airlines brunt a huge amount of responsibility here if procedures weren't followed an this was allow to happen over and over again.
Of course, they also mention (possible in mis-understanding) that he booked these other people as 'flight crew,' which, to me, implies jumpseating. The only catch here, though, is that even if you're jumpseating, you still have to check in with a gate agent, and that gate agent still has to verify your company I.D.
Regardless of the vague reporting, something's definitely fishy here. At some point in time between entering the airport and getting on the plane, either a valid form of payment must be presented, and/or credentials must be checks. What happened to due diligence here? The airlines brunt a huge amount of responsibility here if procedures weren't followed an this was allow to happen over and over again.
Last edited by DXjr; Jul 14, 2014 at 3:56 am
Jul 14, 2014, 4:15 am
#8
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Exile
Posts: 15,656
This is an interesting situation. Based on how he booked, it's treated as an OAL employee, or one of their beneficiaries, and since the passengers are treated as OAL, they have to have monetary proof of buying the pass (ID90/ZED,) which is done from an employee's company pass bureau, or their representative.
Jul 14, 2014, 5:17 am
#9
Join Date: Dec 2010
Programs: Whatever gets me there faster.
Posts: 746
Which makes it all the more curious as to how he managed. He'd have to be acting as a 3rd party broker to do this, or at least worked for one, since if this was a forged airline pass, a red flag would've been raised noting that the employee never existed.
Jul 14, 2014, 9:42 am
#11
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Durham, NC (RDU/GSO/CLT)
Programs: AA EXP/MM, DL GM, UA Platinum, HH DIA, Hyatt Explorist, IHG Platinum, Marriott Titanium, Hertz PC
Posts: 33,857
If he did everything by email, all he'd have to do is take the payment from the person he sold the travel to, then disappear once he had their money. They wouldn't find out until later and he'd have deleted his email address and have a new one by then.
Jul 14, 2014, 11:04 am
#12
Join Date: Aug 2013
Programs: AA Plat,AS MVP Gold, Hilton Gold, Accor Plat, Amtrak(all routes, VIA same, AUS 90%)
Posts: 382
"Now this
Would be the jump seat, right?"
Of course from "Catch Me..," but also exact words I used MIA-ORD when invited onto flight deck for briefing on flight path and weather.
Got a laugh from both FO and pilot.
Of course from "Catch Me..," but also exact words I used MIA-ORD when invited onto flight deck for briefing on flight path and weather.
Got a laugh from both FO and pilot.
Jul 14, 2014, 4:36 pm
#15
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Canada, USA, Europe
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 31,452
Moreover, other airline non revs typically have very low priority, so the airline can hardly argue that their loss was some benefit they wanted to provide in order to get happy employees.
OTOH can a shoplifter claim that no one else wanted the merchandise or would have paid full price for it?
OTOH can a shoplifter claim that no one else wanted the merchandise or would have paid full price for it?