Anybody know of twins abusing FF program
 

just popped into my head

I was wondering if identical twins ever abused a ff program. If I had an identical twin, I certainly would try it!

How exactly would that work? If you were a twin, would you use your twin's passport and commit who knows what federal offense, just for the sake of maximizing miles in one account?

If twins travel together, it sort of defeats the attempt. ;)

Don't need a passport to travel domestically. :)

don't forget father & son who have the same name.
Example: Michael Corbin and Michael Corbin, Jr. However,
both of them have the exact same name on their frequent
flyer accounts.(just "Michael Corbin")

The above names are made up, of course. However, they
have never had a problem with most US airlines. However,
they sort of got busted once when the son was checking
in for a Singapore Airlines flight. The check-in agent said
"sir, there's a problem with you membership number, you
are not that old..." fortunately, the line was long, so the
SQ agent told him to contact SQ member service on the
phone when he gets back...

Obviously the son flies a lot more than the father, but the
father also does quite a bit of leisure flying.

I know a father and son with the same name that share FF numbers. As a result the are top tier on an airline. The only challenge is that they can never travel together. I'm actually surprised the airline never realized this since they often have trips to the same location a day apart or to different locations on the same day!

it probably depends on the airline's software.

A few years ago, I did a mileage run in one day. 3 LGA-BOS shuttle flights all in one day. A few days later, I noticed my online acct status had been locked out. I called customer service and was told their system was alerted to a possible abuse/fraud. It turned out that some of the 3 identical LGA-BOS roundtrips set it off.(the last BOS-LGA was credited TWICE) It resulted in an audit of my acct. :( Fortunately, the agent cleared it up pretty quickly.

I work for a Sr. who often buys plane tickets for Jr. God, it's confusing, especially since they're both F. Middle Name. It's hard enough to get Web sites to acknowledge the "F" as the real first name and they both go by "Middle", but trying to add the Jr. or Sr. is just totally confusing.

As a twin, I have earned miles for flights my sibling took. And we're not identical, or even of the same sex! :)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't you earn miles for someone not even related to you? Airline T&C's usually state something to the effect that Photo ID is not required to fly, although it may subject you to additional security screening.

Okay, I will admit it. I am a III. My father is a Jr. I have used his non refundable tickets before :o

It is difficult sometimes to book flights when we fly together. I have gotten calls where they have cancelled the duplicate booking for me as a favor...

I've thought about it with my twin but he's an arsehole :td:

We have the same initials so I don't think it would be picked up anywhere ;)

Most twins do not have the same names. Probably more common with father/son Jr. types.

If you can I guess you could use a first and second initial only if they matched.

My imagination is running wild. I would like to see a movie about twins who deceive an airline. I propose Jeremy Irons for both roles.

About 12 years ago my parents had a scheduled 3-week trip to Italy and France. It turned out my dad had some work stuff come up and couldn't go. We have the same name (not middle initial, but don't use them). I travelled in his place :) (He got the miles)

Same idea, but with hotels: - more than once I've had points show up in my accounts when my parents stayed somewhere and didn't confirm the correct frequent guest number.

Now we know who the real FTer is! :D

:p At the time I'm not sure I was even in any FF programs!

Anyway, since my flights were free (to me) I won't complain about the miles!

This obviously wasn't AA :)
http://web1.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=518494

Don't toy with me, French Teacher!

Well, they can, but they can't both earn miles for the flight.

My dad and I regularly used a joint PC account since we have the same name when we stayed in hotels. And for a while, he was earning miles on my AA flights (grrr) when he needed some extra miles. A few years after he passed away, I had his AA account merged with mine rather than pay the ridiculous fees to have the miles transferred from his account to mine.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry7100/4.0.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

Before I knew the rules a friend of mine tired to use my dads card. We were rapidly found out and my card was hole punched (south west airlines)

:D I only used "Michael Corbin" as an example...

Vive la France!

Let me point out the not so obvious
 

Given that I'm an identical twin - could I not use his/her passport or driver's license to get on a plane

Sure. But read "more common..." as meaning there are more father/son with the same names than identical twins.

If I were you, or your twin, I would select different airlines and hotels so you have more flexibility. :D

Note that I meant no offence to all identical twins out there!

could I get away with this?

I use FF miles to get a domestic roundtrip award ticket on Delta for 12 yo daughter.

a. 12yo flies to grandma's house (I accompany on the company's dime).

b. 2 weeks later, me, the wife, and 5yo daughter drive to grandma's house and stay for a couple of days. Then, we grab 12yo daughter, take her back home in the car, and leave 5yo daughter with grandma for two weeks.

c. 2 weeks later, I fly to grandma's for company business, then return with 5yo daughter on plane using 12yo daughter's RETURN ticket from roundtrip a. above.

Question: If the 12yo's name is on the ticket, can the 5yo use the return leg? No need for ID, right? Is this possible? Is it ethical/unethical?

Wow! Now I've seen everything.

You take a law school exam recently?

You would get away with it. Not ethical and illegal (theft of service), but I doubt you would get caught unless they had you verify the 12yo's age to make sure that she qualified for a special child's fare, and then on the return the same happened.

not necessarily: :D

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/...n_page_id=1770

Siblings who look enough like each other could simply use each other's ID's (the TSA or some other agency might cause problems if you're caught, though). I don't look really close to my sister, but drivers license pictures are so crummy - someone dyes their hair, gets a different hair cut, and adds glasses, and they look less like their own drivers license picture than I do to my sister's picture.

In my license picture, I'm not wearing glasses, I have a full beard, and my hair is darker than it is now...

...now I'm (usually) clean shaven, I wear glasses, and my hair is a bit lighter as a result of going to the beach regularly.

Needless to say, it doesn't make it fun trying to get into a club.

"This is a fake ID"

No it isn't.

"This isn't you"

Yes it is

"What's your birthday"

15 Dec XXXX

"I still don't believe you"

Get your manager out.. grrr

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mkt

In my license picture, I'm not wearing glasses, I have a full beard, and my hair is darker than it is now...

...now I'm (usually) clean shaven, I wear glasses, and my hair is a bit lighter as a result of going to the beach regularly.

Needless to say, it doesn't make it fun trying to get into a club.

"This is a fake ID"

No it isn't.

"This isn't you"

Yes it is

"What's your birthday"

15 Dec XXXX

"I still don't believe you"

Get your manager out.. grrr

---

You could get a new license (and consider yourself lucky to appear young enough to still get carded!)

See this article for how easy it is to doctor that boarding pass you print out at home (airline employees rarely check the name on that boarding pass against the name in the computer)
http://www.csoonline.com/read/020106/caveat021706.html

I know of a family where a number of members used one FF account. I don't know exactly how they did it, but i believe the account had no names, just 2 initials, and both the father and at least 4 of their kids had first names beginining with either initial. They were top status in their FF program. I don't think this would still work but it was working up until at least 2000.

goodo

I am trying to get my son to change his name so "we" can qualify for a higher elite flyer category.

I had a friend who used to do one or two transcon MR's a year with his older brother's ID in hand to keep his status. He was in school at the time so he'd just go during exams and study the whole trip.

Twins are useful for gym memberships etc.

My dad and I share a FF acct since we have the same name, except I'm JR and my passport doesn't say that ;)

A friend of mine had her sister (non twin) use her passport cuz the traveller left her passport some 3-400 miles away at home. Theyre like 2 yrs apart(15 n 17 i think) Sure if 2 look enough alike one could make the way onto the plane.
It's an intl flight btw.

Totally OT, but fun nevertheless: A friend of mine is a dual American-Israeli citizen, living in the US but born in Tel Aviv. When he applied for his first adult US passport, they made a mistake: Instead of typing in the number code for Israel, they put in the code for the country right before: Ireland! He's been able to visit a number of Arab countries using that PP. Not sure I would chance it, but pretty cool nonetheless...

Think of the number of people that actually know identical twins. Then think of the percentage of the population that flies enough to care about FF programs. Put those two percentages together.... :D