Passenger Attempting to Rebook a Flight Was Told to Place a Large Downpayment

A man who allegedly called United Airlines' official customer service line to rebook an international flight ended up more than $17,000 in the hole with no clear resolution. He claims that the large down payment was supposed to be refunded in early July, but it has yet to show up in his account.

The passenger, Dan Smoker, claims he called United’s official customer service line after his original Denver to London flight was canceled. Instead of a simple rebooking, he was allegedly persuaded by an agent named “David” to put down a massive deposit on his credit card—supposedly refundable. Spoiler: the $17,328 has yet to be refunded.

According to Smoker, the call lasted more than three hours, during which the agent promised him a new itinerary through Newark and sent a confirmation email. The email, however, was riddled with typos, formatting errors, and came from a suspicious “Air-Reservations” domain rather than United. The $17,000 charge also showed up under a company called “AIRLINEFARE” in Iowa. Still, the booking itself went through, suggesting whoever he was speaking with had some form of access to United’s systems.

United’s records don’t quite match the story. The airline says its logs show just a 13-minute call, not the three-plus hours that Dan’s phone bill reflects. Even stranger, the fake confirmation email included a phone number that had actually called into United’s real call center earlier that same day. This raises the possibility that Dan was on hold while “David” impersonated him with a real United agent to secure the flights, pocketing the extra cash for himself.

It’s not uncommon for travelers to be duped by fake phone numbers or websites designed to look like official airline channels. But in this case, the call appears to have started on United’s actual line, making it a murkier situation. United has said only that it is “reviewing the matter thoroughly” while acknowledging that it cannot share details of any internal investigation.

FMI: www.united.com