Booking trips for other people using miles in your account - risky?

[smit0847]

My partner has some orphaned miles in his account from a previous booking where he was not charged the full amount (I bought miles in his account using my credit card). He will not be doing any USDM trips anytime soon.

I have been waiting for a share promo to move the miles from his account to mine so I can use them to book a trip in Jan (that I am going on with a mate). We both got the 100% buy bonus promo this month.

If I buy miles in his account and then book a trip using his miles for me and a friend, is there a risk this may raise a flag with audit? I know of some people on FT (including our dear, dear friend Shayne) who bought miles and then booked for friends and had their accounts closed and miles confiscated because they were seen to be 'selling' the trips.

My partner is registered at the same home address as me but we have completely different surnames.

If it's safe to do so, can I ring up to book either pretending to be him but using my CC to pay taxes, or else ring up being me, use my CC but say I have his authorisation to use his miles in his account? I've booked a trip for him using his miles in his account (and paying with my CC) before when I've been making the same booking using my miles in my account.

Just want to be careful - dont want to upset the apple-cart!

 

[bobcat123]

Hi,
My personal opinion is that it is ok, as the same address would justify that it is your partner/family or at least a v.close friend who you are booking the points for and hence, less likely to have 'sold' your points for a flight.
Basically, I would think US airways conducts an audit when it could not believe you that you were so generous to give away trips to 'strangers'. (it is a bit of an entrapment as they do allow you to do it)

The account holder should ring up and book the flight for you (using his own miles), and pay the taxes using his own credit card. Then there is no cross-over implication.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Simple answer - yes it is risky. How great is the risk? Perhaps very small. We don't know exactly what triggers the flag for a USDM audit, but buying tickets for a different name than the account appears to be one of them. Two people with different names at the same address? Could also be a flag for laundering of points, particularly if bought with the same credit card (could imply opening multiple account to take advantage of the bonus). It seems there might also be a flag on how much flying you actually do. Are the accounts filled with BIS miles? Or are they just filled and redeemed following bonuses?

If I was booking a simple AU-Asia return where i could easily make alternative arrangements if the worst case of account suspension came about I would go ahead. Would I risk it on a multi-segment RTW F itinerary, probably not.

 

[Alanslegal]

If there is not too many 'orphaned' miles then I would pay the share cost and get it over with. Sharing 20K will set you back ~$250 so it won't hurt 'that' much. However, say, sharing 50K that's another story.

If you need to use his miles from his account, then I would either 1) get him to call and do the booking or 2) you call and he is with you, in case they ask to to verify its OK and 3) use his credit card to pay for it rather than using your own card to limit too many differences in names etc.

 

[burmans]

If it's safe to do so, can I ring up to book either pretending to be him but using my CC to pay taxes, or else ring up being me, use my CC but say I have his authorisation to use his miles in his account?

Just on this bit, it is possible to setup on your account someone authorised to operate and would take this approach over pretending to be him, that would be a big flag.

On the bigger question, we are taking a flight to Europe this year and taking my sister who lives in NZ. Because of the number of points in accounts, we booked my wife and myself from my account, and my sister from my wifes account (who do not have the same surname). That was months ago now, no issues. While I agree there is a potential risk there is no doubt that US do allow you to book for someone else, they didn't even ask about our relationship but I certainly made sure I told them of the relationship.

Given its 3 months now am reasonably comfortable that if they were to audit they would have by now. Personally I think the US system sucks a bit in that they seem to suspend without asking any questions first but I also think that in Shayne's case there was a lot going on to potentially flag him for review.