DM accounts being shut down, but tickets still active? [5111111111?]
 

Hi, I have a question about suddenly a rash of my family DM accounts being shut down - they were used in the 'share miles 100% bonus' promo a few months ago. Just recently, my wife's account with a lot of miles were closed for some reason -- and she even had a US Air Barclay CC linked to it - and earned most of them via CC. And it wasn't any duplicate account - her only account - so not sure why it was shutdown. my only guess is somehow related to my recent activity 'buying' more miles from my account - and somehow they see them as linked?

Aside from the annoyance of it - i haven't contacted US Air directly because i still have critical summer award flights floating using the account's mileage booking. Whats the practice - do the tickets get cancelled too? the tickets are still active so far.

Also, i noticed that my award tickets now have a "51111111111" number inserted for the DM account field for the passenger. does 51111111111 stand for what i fear it stands for?

anyone have experience / thoughts?

Did you get any email or other contact from US Airways? And when you say a "rash" of family accounts, did each account have a unique, individual person assigned to it?

It is entirely possible they could cancel your outstanding ticket(s). I wouldn't want to chance it any show up at the airport with a canceled itinerary.

So, it's probably best you start working with them to show that the shares/transfers were legit (assuming they are). There were some other stories like this over the past year that might give you some guidance.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-ai...ighlight=audit

We cashed in some miles a couple of months ago for a trip in May and I wanted to add my DM # so we would all be allowed a free checked bag. For whatever reason the system kept saving it as 5111111111... after two calls to the silver desk and messing with it online I eventually got it fixed. My family's accounts are all in good standing so I don't think it means anything bad.

OP's situation is different and he needs to contact US ASAP in order to figure out what's up. If he's been engaged in shenanigans with any of the accounts, as his post suggests he may have been, the accounts may have been frozen pending an audit and eventual closing if fraud is determined.

As to the tickets, if the account is closed out for fraud, US will either cancel the tickets or show an add/collect for the amount due if the miles are invalid. At some point, I would expect US to simply cancel them.

So, back to square one. Call, call & call. Ducking the call ain't gonna get this fixed if it's fixable and if it's not fixable, better to find out now.

I tried calling DM phone line - but agents just says the account is frozen. but i asked if i can speak with someone, but they said they dont know if there is anyone who i can speak to.

I didn't do any out of ordinary shenanigans. I simply transferred miles between family accounts during the 100% bonus share miles promo last fall to get extra miles. And my wife's account was definitely open for more than 15 days minimum. And one of my accounts that was frozen has been open since 2008! It was that account that i tried to buy more miles in this month's promo - but instead of instantly posting, it was frozen instead.

Anyone know how to reach someone to directly TALK to someone about all this? i fear that if i write an email, things could be confused and tickets cancelled without chance to explain and clear it up. I dont want to raise attention before i talk with someone who can green flag it.

any phone direct line?

I had the agent remove the 51111111111... but 2 days later, the 5111111111 reappeared. I changed it to a another Star Alliance FF number, so will wait to see if it gets changed again. but something is def strange with the 511111 reappearing.

Wait and call DM during regular business hours. This, unfortunately may turn into one of those, "wait for us to contact you" things.

This is totally uncalled for. Nowhere in the OP's post is there any suggestion of shenanigans. :td:

I assume that the department that investigates possible fraud is still there and the normal DM numbers won't get you in touch with them. They'll do their investigation, come to their own conclusions, and if it does result in penalties for you the most you're likely to get is a generic letter about violating the DM rules.

That seems to be the case with the majority of such cases, and most cases reported here involve trying to maximize the bonus miles by sharing miles between accounts.

You could try writing a letter to someone in the upper ranks of the food chain - Director level and up. That may get you a call from someone.

Jim

Hey, I wonder if your ticket ended up valid? I booked an award for my friend (who doesn't have a DM account) using my account and it ended up showing a 51111111111 FFP# for her tickets.

The same happened to me. I booked an award ticket for a friend, I did not enter a FF# when i made the reservation, and now it is showing the FF# as 51111111111. Anybody know what this is? Thanks.

I booked a mileage ticket for my daughter and it had the 5111..... number on it. She flew just fine. I just suspected it was a generic frequent flyer number.

In most of the bonus programs for sharing miles, by sharing miles back and forth extra miles can effectively be manufactured. For example, A shares 50K miles with B but B gains 100K miles, then B shares 50K miles with A who gains 100K miles - A and B each gain 50K miles for minimal cost. Freezing the account(s) involved is the first step of an audit. It doesn't mean you've done anything wrong, only that they're going to take a look at the activity. If you've complied with the rules of the promo you should have nothing to worry about unless you need access to the account miles before the audit is completed.

The same is true for getting an award ticket for someone else, especially if they have a different last name. There is the occasional case of someone selling award tickets and that's what they're looking for evidence of.

Jim