A United Airlines passenger called after his flight got cancelled, and wound up getting scammed for $17,000. United initially denied involvement, saying he’d only called them briefly (13 minutes), but phone records showed him on the line for more than three hours.
It sounded like the customer was the victim of a travel agency scam – where fake agencies take over Google listings so you think you’re calling the airline, but you get them, and they charge you for things that should be free (like rebooking after a flight cancellation, or assigning seats). But this guy called United and wound up with a scam charge for $17,000 – processed by “AIRLINEFARE” not by United Airlines.
- The agent, posing as United, told him he needed to buy replacement tickets on Lufthansa for his family
- But that those tickets would be fully refunded because of the flight cancellation
- And he was given documentation to that effect.
Of course, since it was a scam agency and not United that charged him,he never got the refund. It was a mystery how this happened, until now. United Airlines now acknowledges that:
- the customer called them
- and got transferred to a scam agency by their agent.
Some of you thought that the agent did this intentionally, and was ‘in on it’ likely getting kickbacks. United says the agent was trying to be helpful, and looked up the phone number themselves on the internet rather than through United’s internal systems. According to the airline,
[A] United agent was doing her best to help Smoker, and because he was trying to book on another airline, the agent googled the other airline’s phone number and transferred him to a scammer by accident.
Here’s what’s shocking to me:
- The United agent shouldn’t have needed to transfer the call to rebook a cancelled United flight on Lufthansa. There’s silence as to why the passenger was transferred in the first place.
- The airline says the agent was ‘trying to be helpful’ and browsed the internet to find the right number for the transfer. I actually did not realize reservations agents used ccess to the open internet through their United software on calls (beyond ‘cobrowsing’ united.com) – I had understood they’d have internet access, usable on breaks, but they should know not to be doing this… the whole thing is fishy.
- Despite the airline acknowledging they transferred the customer, telling the customer they were speaking to the correct agent, United will not make this right – committing only to work “with American Express” to do so. Indeed, being ‘committed to making this right’ would be simple if true as they’d just cover the cost.
That’s appalling. United should cover the cost to the customer immediately, and seek any further redress through appropriate channels. This was their agent’s screwup – whether the agent was ‘trying to help’ or ‘in on the scam’ and the customer should not have to wait. They own this.
It’s a good reminder though to be careful Googling airline phone numbers because scam travel agencies have corrupted the results. You call thinking you’re reaching your airline, but the person on the other end charges you for changes you are entitled to for free.
I’ve written about scammers taking over an old Singapore Airlines phone number and pretending to be Singapore Airlines agents when customers call. Scam travel agencies also buy Google ads to appear that you’ve found the airline’s phone number. I’ve seen this with United Airlines, JetBlue, Hawaiian and others.
The longer this stays in the news, the worse it will get for United. Pay the man’s costs.
@Chris. Agreed. This would be a perfect opportunity for a thought-leader in travel to push the story to media folks they know.
It’s such amazingly bizarre behavior by United, combined with a situation many flyers could face (i.e., fake travel agencies and fake airline phone numbers) that I’m certain travel and/or business writers for some major outlets would love to cover it.
United screwed up royally and the optics are just terrible. Kirby should address this personally once he gets done hand kissing in D.C.
United is really botching the comms on this. Why turn this into a two day story and now a three day story? This dog still don’t hunt. Why would you need to transfer to Lufthansa to effectuate what need be done here? United should eat it, say “we fired some people,” whether true or not, and move on. They’re looking more crooked by the second.
Makes you wonder about how often this happens and people don’t notice.
@Chris gets it. Pay up United!
Wow. UA is certainly liable, but I also have to say that Amex might as well reverse the charge (that their business customer made), since so one should never pay it, and even if Amex sued the person, no court would make that person pay.
The United agent should pay. If that is not successful, United should pay.
I mean most of these low level agents will be replaced by ai in a few months to years.
@Nick — If it would have prevented or resolved this issue, that’d be swell, but I remain skeptical. I still think much of AI has been mere ‘hype,’ and some companies have juiced their short-term profits by reducing labor costs (laying off a bunch of necessary roles based on this false promise of AI), and will soon have to re-hire a bunch of roles to fix that error. Whoopsie.
Of course, UA is not immediately solving this issue. They’re going to offer him $100k, if he agrees to full restitution and an NDA.
United is such a poorly run airline it baffles me that the other airlines allowed them to reap such profits. they were always a solid number 4-7 airline in the US with a history of scandals and corruption at the senior levels [just google United and Newark but don’t dial any numbers ;)]
Almost just happened to me with Southwest!
I mis-dialed 800-432-9792 vs. 435-9792 (IFL-YSWA).
I chose the prompt to change a ticket and was surprised that an agent for “Reservations” answered right away. She had trouble finding how much I paid for the original fare.
While on hold, I had to take another call and accidentally dropped the “Southwest” one. The agent called me back twice, although from “Air Reservation” 914-259-8185, and left a message.
Then I remembered this blog post and confirmed my suspicions.
Thanks, Gary!
Kirby is too busy with his kneepads in DC to look into this.
Appalling. Simply appalling. United Airlines has dropped the ball and makes me think twice about booking with them. But, in the end, all these airlines are disappointing in one way or another.
They mentioned they are working with American express .. he most likely used a credit card so he just has to dispute the transaction from a fraudulent charge which is a common thing. The article doesn’t mention anything about this
While travel agents can do a great job, they become the 3rd party when the travel becomes an issue. I hate to say it, but sometimes it’s best to book directly with the airline. HOWEVER, it this case, the wronged passenger should be reimbursed by United as the airline goofed up…BIG TIME. Depending on the laws of the state, take ’em to small claims court, file a DOT and FAA complaint, broadcast it to “the world” (such as TripAdvisor, View From The Wing, etc. The passenger shouldn’t have to do this. Step up to the plate, United!
I get the feeling he is trying to get refunded by UA and AMex. The proper redress with Fraud is not UA but AMEX. You guys have your mind twisted, even if US is at fault for misdirecting teh customer – which remains to be seen because the entire story is fishy.
Those saying dispute the transaction as a fraudulent charge… it isn’t exactly a fraudulent charge. They bought tickets at the going price and they flew on those tickets.
United can’t just give them $17k either – if American Express DOES refund the charges, then the customer (who bears a LITTLE responsibility for buying into pay $17k now but it’ll get refunded later, that makes no sense) now has $17k twice. So they’re going to wait until American Express figures out what (if anything) they’re going to do. But Lufthansa DID fly the passengers, so they should be paid for those flights, right?
Obviously a problem that wouldn’t exist were it not for United’s agent screwing up, but it’s not something that can just be instantly resolved either.
Hopefully United is at work making it so their agents can’t transfer calls outside of an identified set of numbers, and is also ending whatever perverse incentives caused the agent to do the transfer in the first place…. UA and LH are joint venture partners and should be able to ticket on each other.
I was surprised when this was shown on a local news show and UA said it wouldn’t explain to the passenger what happened.
Bad actors seem to like toll-free numbers that are close to legitimate airline phone numbers, just as mistyping a web address might go to a scam site.
@Win Whitmere, airlines hold travel agents responsible for credit card chargebacks even if in the end the airline is considered the merchant. This was some kind of scam outfit.
pay this and make a big deal out of it for positive press. split it with amex. just get out of the news for this poor guy.