kac2138

I got a receipt for an inflight purchase on UA2047 from Bos to Ewr on 12/11. It’s for an 8 dollar purchase of beer. Small issue: I didn’t order a beer, I wasn’t on ua2047, and I’m not the person UA says the receipt is for. I got GIM, S’ receipt and I’m not this person. I’d let UA know but this is concerning. are other people getting my receipts? Is anyone else seeing anything like this?

WineCountryUA

This happens occasionally -- I started this thread 11 years ago due to a similar incident.
This could be a fat finger entry error, a lection of the wrong item in a drop-down menu, or an IT glitch -- it does not appear common, based on reports on FT.

I get neighbor's postal mail, I get wrong items from amazon , ....

kdogfister

Due to UA's schedule changes (I'm guessing Max issues finally impacting mid-summer flights), I was able to change an early morning basic economy flight to a more convenient flight without cost. Required a call, but 12 minutes later all was sorted out.

However, when I go to check my email for the confirmation, I see a second email from United, "Seat Purchase Confirmation". In addition to my itinerary change, United sent me another passengers purchase summary. This includes cardholder name and last 4 of card number, flight info and confirmation number. From confirm and last name, I can easily access the flight itself and get additional details like email address and phone number as well as adding special conditions or even changing seats.

Now I'm nervous that my flight info has been sent to someone else to and checking frequently to ensure nobody cancels my flight or adds a fictitious ESA to my reservation.

2 part question here.
1. Anybody else receive a United confirmation clearly intended for someone else.
2. How does this happen (I recognize this may just be one of life's mysteries)?

jhayes_1780

Yes, and more info here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...ong-email.html

kdogfister

Thanks for the link. I guess UA just doesn't care much when they send out personal information to the wrong person. Definitely not a good sign in this climate to see how little they care about things like customer privacy.

narvik

​​​​​​Well, the only info from someone else's itinerary I ever received was from Delta.
I would have been able to click a link and change or cancel their flights from South America back to USA.
Happens to all airlines, probably.

n198ua

It really bothers me that this is still happening. Last name and PNR are the only thing you really need to muck up someone else’s reservation. How does this even happen in the first place ? Is it IT? Careless CSR’s ? This problem really needs to be addressed by UA.

WineCountryUA

Well, since these postings pop up only once every couple of years, it does not seem to be a widespread problem or a callous disregard for privacy.

EWAarghhh

OFC there is a thread for issues like this.

add a DP: I have received an email titled "Boarding passes for confirmation XXXXXX" on 1/23/2020 for someone (a family) i do not know, with their boarding passes attached.

what's more puzzling is that, the email was sent to an address which I don't use with United.
so, how did United found out about that email address, and sent someone else's boarding pass to it

HNLbasedFlyer

Or, could someone just make a mistake - humans sometimes unintentionally make errors. I've sent an email out in error, I've had things auto-correct I didn't intend (I worked for a guy named Joe DeMartino, it auto-corrected to Joe Demotion, not good), and I recently purchased a show package and bought 2 tickets not knowing 1 ticket covered 2 people (because I didn't read it carefully enough). And if a mistake is made, it is sent to another United customer - and I have my doubts another UA customer would be so sinister muck up, as you put, my reservation just for kicks.

WineCountryUA

Likely an email transscription error -- either by the purchaser or by an agent. I have more than once sent an email to the wrong person or to an non-existent email by transposing or mistypying. I have entered my email at various sites incorrectly.

threeoh

This makes it less puzzling -- it's not an IT glitch / privacy violation on United's part because they never had that email, it's just an agent or actual customer mistyping their email address.

I have also gotten random emails from a real estate agent in Ontario asking if I liked the property we had viewed and an email from a British school asking me to send an X-Ray of my daughter's broken arm. I've even gotten snail mail of a neighbor a block away because they transposed two numbers in the address!

Anyway, no mystery or mass privacy violation here as far as I'm concerned.

fumje

My most interesting errant email was about a lot of French wines on wholesale auction in Hong Kong. I was tempted to try playing along, and then I got an invoice for SGD tax payments due.

EWAarghhh

Well, here's the deal. Just like my FT alias, the email alias is a long chemical compound name. It is highly unlikely to be the result of auto-correct, nor a simple typo - you really have to alter quite a few letters to derive another word (which is most likely another chemical compound name). So unless the intended recipient is a chemist, or has advanced chemistry knowledge, I just can't imagine how United get that email address by some error.

I had been using that email address for various online activities, and it was the one I used with AA and Amtrak for a few years in the early 2000s. I typically use another email address for my travel purchases.

threeoh

So your theory is that United bought a database of 20-year-old travel emails from AA and then sent out random ticket receipts to people on that list?