A woman said she missed her husband’s funeral due to fraud.
She was scheduled to fly from Orlando-Sanford International Airport to Wisconsin earlier this month.
Investigative journalist Ashlyn Webb of Boston’s sister station 25 in Orlando investigated the scam and discovered that the airline initially fell for the scammers as well.
Joanne Stainer, 79, remembers the 59 wonderful years she had with her husband Joe.
“Joe had the most amazing personality. I was always joking around,” Stainer said.
He died last March. This month, the family planned to lay him to rest at their family cemetery in Wisconsin.
Stainer, her son and grandson were all ready to fly from Orlando-Sanford International Airport to Appleton on June 1. But a medical emergency kept Stainer from making that flight.
Instead, she had to book a last-minute ticket to Wisconsin herself, flying the night before her husband’s funeral.
Stainer admits she’s not very tech-savvy, so she called 411 to be directed to Allegiant Airlines to book that flight.
Stainer says she spoke to a man who said he worked for Allegiant. She explained that she needed a plane ticket to fly to her husband’s funeral, and “he says, ‘I can get that for you,'” Stainer said.
Allegiant’s website states that the round-trip flight costs about $50 to $200.
The man Stainer spoke to originally said the round-trip flight would cost $988 — and that it would be even higher because she was flying for her husband’s funeral. The guy even sent her what looks like an Allegiant boarding pass with a confirmation code!
Fast forward to June 3, Stainer gave the Allegiant ticket counter that code, and they printed her an actual boarding pass. She checked her bags. An attendant even drove her through TSA.
She was just waiting at the gate.
But then everyone got in except her.
“I said why? Why can’t I get on the flight? I have a ticket. I thought if you have a ticket you’re as good as gold,” Stainer said.
An Allegiant supervisor told her she didn’t have an actual ticket.
“He said, we’ve had a lot of scammers. This is not the first time this has happened to us,” Stainer said.
Stainer says the scammers took about $2,000, charging her card more than ten times in small amounts.
Our investigation team called the number Stainer used to book that fraudulent ticket.
The person originally claimed to be a travel agent in New York.
The supervisor of their so-called agency would not give the name of the company unless we told him who the passenger was.
“I don’t think to answer this question you need to have the passenger’s name?” Webb said.
“And then I don’t answer anything, madam,” said the scammer.
Stainer’s heartbreaking story raises other questions as well, such as how she managed to get all the way to the gate with a fake ticket?
Allegiant, along with our investigative team, confirmed that their system did not flag Stainer’s ticket until after she left the ticket counter.
TSA said Stainer got through because the airline gave her a real boarding pass.
Allegiant said their team would typically have caught a fraudulent ticket sooner, but Stainer’s ticket was purchased too close to departure.
“Allegiant has a dedicated team responsible for identifying and investigating bookings made by fraudulent third parties. Ms. Stainer’s confirmation number was legitimate and therefore she was able to check in her luggage. However, the ticket was purchased through a third party that was previously flagged for fraudulent activity. Within a few hours of booking, our system flagged the third-party buyer,” Allegiant said in part in a statement. “Ms. Stainer purchased her ticket on the day of travel through the third party. If the flight had been purchased earlier, she would have been notified prior to arriving at the airport, and a customer service representative would have been happy to give her suggestions on how to proceed to go.”
By the time the airline discovered the ticket was fraudulent, Stainer’s luggage was already on the plane.
Her checked bag reached Appleton, Wisconsin, but Stainer missed her husband’s funeral.
‘I was so determined that I would be there to see him put into the ground. I owe him that,” Stainer said.
Allegiant says these scams have increased during the pandemic. Allegiant recommends booking directly through the airline so you don’t get ripped off.
For any customer service line or site, the Better Business Bureau recommends doing a quick Internet search to make sure the number you are calling or website you are using is the actual company, or in this case, the airline.
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