Kacee

If we are getting this many reports just from within the FT community, then it seems reasonable to assume there's a whole bunch more going on that we are not hearing about.

I certainly hope UA is doing something even if they're not addressing the issue publicly.

kettle1

I'd guess 99% of people receiving an email in Chinese will throw it into the trash thinking it is junk mail. If UA is sending these emails - something is wrong. If my vacation plans were handled this way, I would be pissed.

Contact UA web security. This is not right.

malgudi

OP already did that ... hasn't heard back.

goalie

As screwed up as United's I/T area is, I wouldn't contact web security for the time of day, let alone something a serious as this might be. What I'm getting at is contacting a suit or some other person at WHQ with the authority to speak for United and if no one responds, then drop a dime to the media and have their consumer affairs anchor contact United as that (problem or no problem) will get a response

MSPeconomist

Is there any pattern of people with cancelled award tickets using Air China having common last names?

Suppose a broker wants to find award space to sell a ticket. Could the broker go into something like checkmytrip, enter the desired flight and date, and then keep checking common American last names until getting lucky and finding an award flight that can be cancelled using the last name (guessed, probably with software that automatically checks and keeps trying from a long list of common last names) and UA PNR. Checkmytrip or something similar reveals the PNR. Then name + PNR is sufficient to cancel the award ticket of the rightful owner. If cancellation often frees up award space quickly on Air China flights, the broker now has the desired award ticket to sell.

Of course, if the broker has access to the Air China reservation records, the process is much easier and doesn't require attempting to guess last names. In that case, broker directly finds an award reservation on the desired flight. Use PNR + last name to cancel on UA website in Chinese, and then grab the newly released award space to sell to their own customer using miles they purchased.

I never realized that the policy of most major airlines to not put cancelled award space back into award inventory had a useful purpose in that it makes the odds of this type of fraud being successful become so low as to discourage investment of effort in such a scheme.

Does anyone have a sense of how often Air China will take cancelled award seats and quickly put them back into award inventory? Maybe it only works predictably if the flight has lots of regular revenue FC seats for sale, which seems to be true in the cases being reported here.

If brokers are guessing last names to find the PNRs, it's entirely UA's fault due to the security flaw of allowing cancellation with only the PNR + lastname. If instead the modus operandi of this scam is to start with the Air China reservation records, then Air China and the system it uses is partially to blame too.

If Air China wanted to help, it could look carefully at award tickets on flights/cabins/dates associated with the cancellations reported to them by UA. Most of those tickets would involve not only reservations obtained fraudulently but also the fraudulent sale of *A miles to a broker. Investigation would give grounds to cancel the new award tickets. If this happens enough, most brokers would be forced to stop these practices because they would get too many complaints from their own customers now being able to fly with their cheap FC tickets.

kb1992

Wikipedia has a list of common Chinese last names.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...inese_surnames

ordbkk

Our last names are very uncommon. In any case, I expect the last names would be the easy part to get, in cases where the Name & PNR weren't already paired.

ordbkk

I just realized I have a new problem: The new flight United gave me has us landing in Beijing a day earlier, so I will need to pay for another night of hotel.... and worse yet, we are now over our 72-hour visa limit. What a #$! mess.

IAHUArunner

when was the last reported cancellation? Did UA somehow figured out to stop this from happening again?

transportbiz

Have you heard of Air China? Is it really necessary to be rude?

Neil35

Because it will take time to resolve the issue, the obvious thing to do is to get Chinese tourist visa for your trip. I heard that Chinese are quite serious about the 72-hour limit and the geographic restrictions to Beijing area for TWOV. Even worse, you won't be allowed to check in at the ticket counter in the first place.

Fortunately they have a Consulate-General office in Chicago. You should be able to get it done in 2 days in person if you are in a big hurry.

ordbkk

I've heard the same. So... another $130/person. Does anyone know a better way to get some resolution to this other than submitting the generic feedback form at United.com ?

olouie

YMMV and it kind of sucks, but in these situations you can try going to the airport and talking to someone there. At least you will get a live person. I have had much better success at going to SFO and talking to the reps at the 1K / GS counter who then escalate things quickly.

DeaconFlyer

Sounds likes it time to start thinking of taking UA to small claims court to recover your extra costs cause by their lax security protocals. It would at least force them to respond.

cfischer

did you ask them to fix it? They were willing to help w/ the CA situation and probably had no idea you wanted to use the 72-hr visa-free transit.