jsloan

Paper boarding passes are not the same thing as paper tickets. . In this age of interline e-ticketing, I haven't used a printed ticket in years, even though I almost always print boarding passes. With a paper ticket, you can't complete your check-in online; instead, you have to give your ticket to the check-in agent, who will print a boarding pass for each leg and then staple a ticket coupon to each one. When you board the flight, the gate agent will scan the boarding pass and then the computer will spit out an instruction to collect the ticket and the boarding coupon.*. If you ever wondered why card stock boarding passes were perforated -- that's why. The airline kept the longer piece of the boarding pass, with the coupon attached, for auditing; you kept the shorter piece as a seat locator.

Incidentally, paper boarding passes are clearly not proof of travel -- it's trivial to print a ticket and then refund it. I'm not sure I'd tell your accounting department that, though, because whatever they come up with to replace it is likely to be even more onerous.

* I actually saw a paper ticket in the past few months. The computer beeped, the agent ignored it, and the passenger boarded with the family's full set of tickets in hand. I imagine somebody in the audit department freaked out when they failed to get a pouch of paper tickets from that station. If they were UA-issued tickets, I imagine they can probably still be marked as used in the system, although I'm not 100% sure. If they were non-016 tickets, UA may not be able to collect for transporting those passengers.

ani90

Seems overkill to me. I must say I travel a lot of airlines and don't have any stored in my phone other than United. That said I have found when I have had to call other airlines from USA the airline name almost always comes up as caller ID so I would be suspect if it didn't.

There is though a difference between a paper ticket and a printed ticket.

mozilla

IIRC from a previous topic on this issue - yes, this has been going on for a few years now - they either identify using something very generic as "Reservations," or, if they are targeting United flyers, they may use something with "United" in it, but not "United Airlines." It may be "United Travels" or something similar.

I have never seen a documented case of any of those numbers actively pretending to be United Airlines on the phone. There is no need to anyway, as they deliberately target folks too much in a rush to pay attention.

irishguy28

There's no reason for the person answering the phone to represent themselves as anything; besides, they are probably answering the phone to passengers who think they are contacting many different airlines, so they probably have a very generic script and just wait for the information that the caller will be offering unprompted. The caller already thinks they are calling United (or American or Alaska or Delta or whoever else) and their callers probably immediately identify which airline they think they are calling in the first breath, and even if they don't, it probably doesn't take much prompting for the agent to figure out which of the many possible airlines they have "advertised" with is involved. They just sit back and wait for the information.

- "Good morning, my name is XXX, how may I assist you today?"
- Frantic passenger who has missed their flight responds in a panic, who may or may not already have mentioned by name which airline is involved
- "Oh yes, I can definitely help you with this. Can you please give me the details of the flight in question? I will also need the reference number or eticket number and your surname...."

uastarflyer

If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone.

Sympathies to the OP.

zombietooth

Sorry for the imprecise language. Yes, obviously it's paper boarding passes that are considered proof of travel.

But you wouldn't believe the archaic requirements that I encounter in business. For instance, I have to pay taxes in many states where I don't live and I can file returns and appeals with many via an online portal or as an email attachment, but some require mailed documents or even faxes! Also, for some tax audits, only paper records are allowed, digital records are not accepted. It's hard for me to keep track of all of the different requirements.

I have an android, and there's not even a way to print my 1K card from the phone. However, it's a cheap phone and, after having multiple iPhones stolen during my travels, I'm going to stick with cheap and undesirable for my phones now.

daleweston

Hi all,

First thanks a ton for all your insight and advice. Greatly appreciated. Now for an update...

As most of you have already determined, we were not speaking to a UA agent. But there were plenty of opportunities for us to have noticed that. The email that arrived with the flight changes and charges to confirm was clearly marked with the actual name of the agency. And the agent's email address was also clearly indicating they were not UA. As for how we got there in the first place, there were notices all around the UA customer service area at EWR with a QR code to reach UA customer service on the phone rather than waiting in line. When we tried that there was no answer. It was at that point that the fateful google search turned up the fake number.

Also interesting is that two charges showed up on the credit card. One was from Emirates Air and one was from United. Not United Airlines, just United. So I'm guessing that the first one through Emirates is the actual cost of our tickets. The second is the cost of my error, charged through a merchant designed to look like an airline. They probably have several of these merchant accounts created to look like airline names.

One potential bright spot is that I have written confirmation of the promise of a refund for the unused EWRDXB UA flight. Oh, and there was nothing wrong with our return flight reservations, as some had suggested could have been the case. So if I don't get the refund I may try to use that as cause to dispute the additional charge. We will see.

All things considered, we did make it to Dubai for our meetings. And only money was lost. Live and learn.

Thanks again for all your help. Have a great day!

jsloan

No worries. I think mduell may have been yanking your chain a bit.

I apparently left a form out of my 1040 packet last year and had to sign up for an eFax service to send it. That was bad enough just as a one-off. Having to deal with that on the regular… ugh.

wrp96

Now that you've made your meetings, stick around for future travel as this board is very helpful.

chavala

Out of curiosity I called 888.292.7184 this morning.
They answer the phone "Reservations". I asked if this is United Airlines and the conversation went round and round until they finally admitted they're not really the airline. Lots of pressure to give my information.

Guess what? They just called me back! They said they are calling to help me with changes to my upcoming United flight. I played along as if I believed them. They asked for my info.
I told them my name is Art Vandelay and gave them a reservation number that I can't spell out here ; )
I was on hold for about 5 minutes before the call disconnected (I guess someone figured it out!).

Was this immature? Do I have too much time on my hands today? Yes and Yes. But it was kind of fun.

Sorry this happened to OP. I can see where someone could be fooled if they thought they were actually talking to the airline.
Amazing they can get away with this.

WineCountryUA

As mentioned earlier, as long as they don't claim to be UA, you call them and they fully disclosed the $ going to be charged, they have not broken any laws. They really proliferated during the major irrops when customer support lines were hours long for days and guys pick up quickly. The fact they can do nothing more than you can online is not realized. The "google it" versus going to the primary site and the search companies allowing them to show up first is at the heart of the problem.

jsloan

Either that, or they were just working out what an importer / exporter does.

enviroian

Your post made my day.

TXJeepGuy

I'd try to dispute anyways- especially since its a separate charge to them and the airline (won't end up on a do not do business with list with Emirates that way). The QR codes put up around the customer service area at the airport is absolutely shady. The more time these companies have to spend fighting with everyone they scam, the less time they have to scam the next person.

jsloan

UA put the QR codes up. OP is stating they weren't able to connect to the live agent that staffs the website those QR codes link to.

The QR codes themselves aren't shady (although, admittedly, an enterprising person could put up a fake QR code and nobody at UA would notice for months).