5 ms·
I was confused about what "bogus discounted travel vouchers" were so I found some more detail about the fraudulent business in this local TV story: http://www.k
by mherdeg 11y ago
I was confused about what "bogus discounted travel vouchers" were so I found some more detail about the fraudulent business in this local TV story: http://www.ketv.com/news/company-sold-flight-vouchers-but-now-cant-honor-them-all/31926228 http://www.ketv.com/news/company-sold-flight-vouchers-but-no...
> "The price that I was look at was for a 90 day in advance reservation for $139 round trip anywhere that Southwest flies," Creative Creations customer Phyllis Hicks said.
> Hicks paid for several tickets and received a receipt. The voucher explained that customers would fly on the days they requested, and a confirmation should arrive at least month before departure.
> However, Hicks never received her confirmation email because Creative Creations exceeded the 2,000 vouchers for flights in March.
> "They're asking people to cancel their March vouchers. Well, I travel March 26, and it's not an option to cancel," Hicks said.
What a weird model. The "you can only redeem 2,000 of these per month" angle almost makes this sound like the business was trying to be a Ponzi scheme. But it just doesn't make a lot of sense.
- sjburt 11y agoIt sounds like they resold the vouchers before buying them from Southwest expecting that they could buy an unlimited number. But Southwest got wise to it and limited the program. And then their business didn't maintain enough cash reserve for refunds (or had customers unwilling to accept refunds). I wonder if the intent was ever to defraud, or if they just made a colossal mistake.
- mherdeg 11y agoTo my knowledge Southwest doesn't sell such a 'voucher' product, though. It seems possible that this company was just selling 'vouchers' and, when it came time to fulfill the 'voucher', they were just buying a plane ticket with cash. You could get away with this for a while by booking flights only for the people who wanted the least expensive itineraries and only on sale … and by taking in new money promised against future months to pay for the current month's sales.