How to Protect Yourself from the Most Common Airline Scams

In air travel, scammers take advantage of customers with various flight scams. Fortunately, travelers can spot and avoid airline scams with awareness and caution. We dug through real traveler airline reviews to determine common airline scams and provide tips on avoiding them.

Key Insights

• More than 5,000 commercial airports are in the United States, and up to 143 billion dollars are spent on flights, creating ample opportunities for airline scams.
• The most common airline scams include fake airline ticket websites and fake airline customer service phone numbers or contact information.
• Consumers consider dynamic pricing and hidden luggage fees on airlines unethical, but they are not illegal scams in most cases.

What Are Airline Scams?

In airline scams, a scammer tricks an unsuspecting customer into paying for something that either doesn’t exist or isn’t relevant or useful. This might include airline phishing scams through links in media. It might also sell fake airline tickets to pocket customers' cash.

According to reviews and discussions on our online review platform, airline scams are extremely common. This is partially due to the number of airline issues that legitimately arise when traveling and because scammers are very clever about making their scams appear to be authentic.

Fortunately, customers aren’t alone when they have issues or want to report airline scam activity. Among other resources, PissedConsumer Club offers personalized assistance for consumers seeking expert help and guidance in resolving airline issues.

Common Airline Scams

Airline fraud is disturbingly common. Below you’ll find many of the most common airline ticket fraud issues consumers face.

Phishing scam

Airline phishing scams are impersonation scams. The scammer pretends to be someone they aren’t through social media, the internet, or email. When you contact the fake airline customer service, the scammer gets your personal financial information or tricks you into spending more money on a scam.

One customer in Austin, Texas was searching for a flight on Frontier. When the system refreshed, the price of the flight had jumped over $120. The frustrated customer attempted to contact Frontier through social media.

According to the customer, on social media, Frontier “will tell you to DM them” but then the company will “NEVER answer.” After posting on Twitter multiple times, the customer had

some scammers from the UK reaching out from WhatsApp and asking me to write in whats up what they should know already as if I had nothing else to do.

Fortunately for the customer “told them to go find the cases on Twitter” and “they disappeared.” While there were consumer issues with the dynamic pricing on Frontier, he at least avoided falling for a phishing scam.

Fake airline customer service numbers

Similar to phishing, fake airline customer service creates another possible issue for customers. In this version of airline fraud, the scammers create websites or social media profiles with fake numbers. You call the fake airline customer service number, and the scammers ask for personal or financial data they use for fraudulent purposes.

One customer called out the airline fraud with her review on PissedConsumer.com (review #5150572). She claims the number she called is

not the correct Frontier Airline customer service number.

She also claims the scammers “had the audacity to hang up in my face.”

This consumer experience was echoed by another customer who tried to google Delta customer service and was given a scammer’s phone number instead. After calling, growing suspicious, and hanging up, the customer realized that the fake number

was posted across various platforms like LinkedIn, Azure, Quora, etc, and not on Delta's website. This same number was associated with multiple airlines

was causing many potential airline issues with this same scammer.

Source: Reddit.com

Fake airline ticket websites

Scammers create fake airline ticket websites that appear to be legitimate with this scam. Customers find such websites and buy the tickets they want. They don’t realize, of course, that they bought fake airline tickets until it’s too late and they have lost money on the scam.

A Reddit user posted about his experience with one of the fake airline ticket websites. He claims he bought a ticket and was waiting for confirmation but “didn’t get an email so I called up the number you see in the picture.”

A consumer then learned that the “flight price had jumped up from 94$ to 191$” and “as a wise person I decided to cancel.” The fake company then charged a $75 fee for “canceling” the fake ticket and definitely came out ahead. The customer urges others to report airline scam issues like this one.

Source: Reddit.com

The Reddit poster certainly isn’t alone in their issues with fake flight tickets. Another would-be traveler posted about their experience with a fake company in the comments of the same Reddit post. This user claims they “waited all day for my confirmation email” but it never arrived.

When a consumer called, the flight had jumped prices or the fake company wanted a “$75 cancelation fee.” Fortunately, this user locked a credit card just before the company tried “to charge my card for the total charge at the highest fair while I was on the phone.”

Source: Reddit.com

Do These Airline Issues Indicate a Hidden Scam?

While unsavory, some airline practices are not technically illegal. Consumer insights might call some of these practices a scam, even if they are more unethical than against the law.

Dynamic pricing manipulation

When a company changes prices to flights based on customer search history or just before the customer buys the ticket, it is shady and unethical, if not technically illegal. Dynamic pricing manipulation is often called a scam by customers who feel betrayed by last-minute changes they didn’t authorize or see before spending money.

In the earlier example of the flyer from Austin, he encountered dynamic pricing manipulation and considered it a scam when the price changed to “247.96US$ (110US$ more)” after the system refreshed.

The customer claims the change happened “literally 3 minutes later.” Despite multiple attempts to contact Frontier and an encounter with scammers who attempted a phishing scam, the customer never resolved the issue, and she claims,

Frontier Airlines stole me over 120US$ on price gauging.

Untransparent baggage fee charges

Nontransparent or “hidden” baggage fees land a lot of companies on annual worst-to-best airline lists. Customers don’t like unpleasant surprises. As unsavory as they might be, it is not illegal for airline companies to charge for baggage on the plane.

Often these prices are in the fine print or extra details of the flight information. Most airline companies charge something for baggage fees, but many customers still feel they are being scammed when they see these charges.

A customer with Sun Country specifically bought “brand new luggage of the exact” dimensions required by the airline company. Unfortunately, at the gate, “due to the wheels on the luggage, the bag would not fit into the sizer” and the customer was told they “would need to pay for the bags to be checked-in.”

The frustrated customer mentioned a “class action lawsuit against Sun Country” similar to the one against other airlines. Both Frontier and American Airlines have been sued by customers about luggage policies. In the case of American Airlines, the company settled the class action lawsuit after admitting to charging baggage fees despite telling some customers the fees would be waived.

How to Avoid Airline Scams

Avoiding airline scams is often a measure of sticking with authorized sources of information. Since airline scammers like to trick customers, you simply need to be one step ahead when it comes to buying and managing air travel.

• Buy only on the official company website or app. If you visit and buy directly from the airline rather than any third-party website, you can avoid many scams.
• Find customer service on the official website or app. Avoid searching for customer service numbers online and calling. This is a common source of scams.
• Read the fine print. Read the details of your flight – including baggage allowances – before booking. Double-checking will also help avoid dynamic pricing issues.
• Search for flights in an “incognito browser.” You can avoid some ads and dynamic pricing issues by clearing your website memory or using an incognito browser to search for flights.
• Avoid giving personal information. An authentic travel website will not need you to reveal personal information, including your social security number or financial details over social media or the phone.

What to Do If You Fall for Airline Scams

Scammers are clever, and even vigilant customers get tricked sometimes. Consider these steps if you are a victim of an airline scam.

• Lock your credit card accounts. Change your passwords, report your credit card information as potentially stolen, and alert your banks to the issue.
• Report the airline scam to the right legal authorities. You can report the scam to your local authorities, the federal government, the Fair Trade Commission, or the Department of Transportation.
• Let others know about your experience to warn them off. Leave reviews to alert other would-be customers to the scam.

Helping Others Avoid Airline Scams

Airline scams are incredibly common and frustrating. Reading reviews about airline companies can help you learn what to expect before booking and help you spot any issues that might be signs of a scam. Likewise, you can help others by reporting your experiences with airline companies, both legitimately and fraudulent.