Carolina2Cali

Jetlagged and groggy this morning, I answered a local Los Angeles number call to see who it was, half thinking it was a work call. It was a lady claiming to represent United Airlines' new facility in Sherman Oaks, CA. I found it odd but she promised she wasn't selling me anything, and she continued. She said I was invited to tour the new facility and I would receive a gift... 2 roundtrip tickets, for attending. Now, I almost primarily fly American (but occasionally Southwest, Qantas, Virgin Australia, Delta) so I thought hmmm, maybe they are trying to poach AA ExPlats or something. I was still in defense mode though, assuming she would ask me to confirm tons of personal details and then I would hang up. But instead, she said the invitation was only for COUPLES... I said I was single. She said oh, ok, she will call back next week to see if I have found a girlfriend by then... I won't as I am gay, and technically do have a psychotic OCD boyfriend, but none the less, we mutually ended the call.

What the heck? It feels like a timeshare offer but instead of checking out some random hotel it was a new United facility? I bet United has no such authorization into whatever such this is... so where would this gal's invitation ultimately have taken me?

WineCountryUA

Thanks for the warning, Clearly a scam, UA does not operate time-shares

Does sound like the typical time-shares promotion.

However, this is not the forum for going after the time-share industry promo practices. Let stick to the UA related issue.

Any others have been contracted about a UA timeshare?

Lux Flyer

Nope and it was surely not an authorized use of the United Airlines name but rather just someone choosing an airline to attempt to give authenticity to their scam. They could have used AA or DL or any other brand name too, but UA doesn’t have any such agreement/promotion in place. Their corporate security takes these attempts to misuse/misrepresent affiliation with the brand seriously and shuts multiple of them down each week. OP could write in usinf the feedback form on united.com regarding this including details such as the number they received the call from and the other details they included in their post and it would get forwarded to corporate security to investigate and hopefully get shut down quickly.

pseudoswede

Yup. The most common one that I find in my voicemail usually starts with, "Thanks for being a <insert major hotel chain name here> customer. We have an exciting offer...".

Uscnef

Literally just got called from a dude…as I was boarding my united flight so I thought it was 50 percent legit. Like they knew I had a united flight. I said call back later, then proceeded to google and thank god your post came up! Thanks!

halls120

A timeshare in Sherman Oaks? Seriously?

FlyingM

LMFAO. Wouldn't that be a Trip!

nk15

What UA new facility, like an office building? Or an airplane hangar?

Saul E. Tare

Got one just 5 minutes ago. I hung up once the male voice stated something about a FREE ROUNDTRIP FOR 2.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Gee, I hope it's not related to this:

United Might Sell our Data - FlyerTalk Forums

Johnson21710

I’ve received a call the last three days in a row except it’s to tour the new United facility in Las Vegas. Call came from the 702 area code but the poor, barely understandable, english as well as background noise leads me to believe they’re coming from a call center in India.

FlyingM

I do not think it's related. I often get unsolicited calls pretending to be from Marriott Worldwide and Costco Travel - telling me I won a free Trip for my patronage, and then connecting me to some sort of timeshare company in Mexico. I'm sure a company is just stealing the United Airlines name.

Sadly, in my career, I'm not allowed to ignore calls from anybody. I have to answer every spam call, just in case it's a real one.

TWA884

I just received a call to invite me to tour United's new reservation center and hotel in Sherman Oaks. Being that Sherman Oaks is less than ten miles from my home, I know better and terminated the call. I told the guy to take me of their calling list and to never call me again; however, he kept arguing that it was not a scam, so I hung up. That will teach me to answer a call from a number which I did not recognize.

Here is a refresher from the FTC:

AugustusM

I wish there was a United-branded time share with a breakfast of cold eggs in puff pastry, intermittent Wi-Fi, lounge areas with not enough room and was difficult to find an optimal time to use the award.

TAKE MY MONEY UNITED!