Mileage Plus Frequent Flier Flair
[Editor’s Note: Blog reader Erik Ochsner and I were both the “new kid in class” in fourth grade. As adults, we both have lives that involve a lot of travel, and send each other Facebook messages when we’re excited about crazy flight routes we’ve managed to book. Erik is globe trotting orchestra conductor has waved his baton in front of symphonies from Iceland to Indianapolis. He is also very much a gentleman– on a recent coast-to-coast flight he was “encouraged” by airline staff to give up his seat so that Paris Hilton could sit next to her boyfriend. When Erik recently told me about his tale about being an almost-vicitim of Frequent Flier Fraud, I asked him to write this guest post – Jen]
Erik Ochsner, Conductor and near victim of Frequent Flier Mileage balance theft
I was simply making my morning checks on e-mail, Facebook, and happened to check my bank account and decided to check on my United MileagePlus Frequent Flier account, too.
Much to my shock, I noticed that my account showed a VAST difference in what I thought I had and what I currently had. I quickly logged onto my account on my laptop to a grim discovery: 367,550 miles had been deducted!
FOR WHAT? I did not make any deductions. With a little more research, I found that they were used to book a hotel. No other information.
I quickly picked up the phone, called the 1K desk at United (UAL has a dedicated number for Premier fliers who log more 100,000 Premier qualifying miles or 120 Premier qualifying segments annually) and explained the situation. The agent said they are seeing more and more of this happen and instructed me to hang up and call a separate number for MileagePlus hotels. I did this immediately.
The next agent walked me through a sequence of steps to find the itinerary, and what we discovered was a reservation for 2 adults in a Dubai hotel for 20 nights, starting in 2 days! She said this was a good thing since the stay had not started, simply click on CANCEL and the miles will be immediately returned to my account.
The hotels agent walked me the steps to double check my account settings, and sure enough someone had hacked my account and changed the e-mail address associated with the account. The culprit had simply changed 1 letter in the e-mail address (the 6th letter changed from an S to a C.) Also all automatic notifications had been turned off, so for example I would not have received any SMS messages on my mobile phone. We updated the e-mail address, changed the PIN number, and signed off.
*wheh*
It seems that it’s all set now, and someone will show up in Dubai WITHOUT a hotel room – THEIVES!!!
Erik conducting the Lord of the Rings Symphony along with a live projection
[Editor’s Note: My favorite part of Erik’s story is that he had a happy resolution via the United Mileage Plus Program agents. Have any of you had similar Frequent Flyer Mile theft or near theft? Please let us know in the comments section. And if you’re in the NYC area and like chamber music, check SONOS Chamber Orchestra where Erik is the musical director.]