Questions and Answers

Hi Lucky,
If my mileage ticket has been issued by someone else and most likely someone I don’t know, could I be refused travel ? Would the airline be able to shut my account ? Could they ban me from flying on their airlines or the group (star alliance, one world)
Thanks for your input on this.

Short answer – yes.

It sounds like you are suggesting a situation where you are maybe paying a third party to book a mileage ticket for you using someone else’s account – which is violation of the terms and conditions of most programs.

If that’s what you’re trying to do – there are a ton of resources available to earn and redeem award tickets without that hassle! Buying points from an airline during a mileage sale is one example.

If I’m misunderstanding your situation, please let us know and we can offer different advice!

[QUOTE=”rickyw, post: 63656, member: 1436″]Short answer – yes.

It sounds like you are suggesting a situation where you are maybe paying a third party to book a mileage ticket for you using someone else’s account – which is violation of the terms and conditions of most programs.

If that’s what you’re trying to do – there are a ton of resources available to earn and redeem award tickets without that hassle! Buying points from an airline during a mileage sale is one example.

If I’m misunderstanding your situation, please let us know and we can offer different advice![/QUOTE]

Hi Ricky,
Thanks for your answer.
So how would the airline know ? I see a few brokers online offering this service, are they doing something illegal or wrong ?
Thanks for taking the time to reply !

[QUOTE=”Robbie, post: 63658, member: 5278″]
So how would the airline know ? I see a few brokers online offering this service, are they doing something illegal or wrong ?[/QUOTE]

The brokers themselves may not be doing anything illegal[B],[/B] but they are encouraging others (FF account holders) to violate the terms of their agreements. Which are very one-sided. So a broker convinces a FF account owner to “sell” miles (a violation) to you, the buyer. Nothing is [I]per se illegal[/I], but the airline is well within its rights to close the offending account, and cancel the ticket. Your recourse, as buyer – go after the broker. Good luck – better read the terms closely. The broker may guarantee getting you somewhere, but not necessarily the same day, class of service, etc., and they will definitely disclaim any consequential damages.

In response to your earlier question, I would think it highly doubtful that the airline would ban you, the buyer, from future flights. Perhaps future award flights. And I can’t imagine an entire alliance would care (or even share such data).

As to how they would know? Big data: run algorithms looking for such patterns.