Most of us earn lots of airline miles by applying for credit cards, purchasing items through shopping portals and taking advantage of a variety of other deals.
Here is a way NOT to get your hands on airline miles.
A 36 year-old woman is being accused of stealing $300,000 worth of Delta SkyMiles from a former employers account.
Tiffany Tomaselli turned herself into police and is being charged “with theft by unauthorized taking and other offenses,” according to Time.com. She was released on $5,000 bond and it isn’t known if she had an attorney representing her.
Tomaselli left her job as an executive assistant at Brookstone in 2013. Executives figured out that she used the company’s airline miles for trips to various countries. The amount of miles that Tomaselli redeemed were over 2 million Delta SkyMiles! The miles were stolen from an account which the company used for business trips.
There weren’t many details shared about the accusations but I wonder if the miles were being used from 2013 until now. If so, why did it take four years for the company to notice the miles being used for unauthorized flights?
I know that when we book flights with Delta SkyMiles, we get a SkyMiles Redemption e-mail soon after. The e-mails state, “If you did not authorize this transaction, please contact us immediately at 1-800-323-2323 for assistance.”
If you’d like to earn miles through credit card signup bonuses, you can apply for cards here.
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Al- You’re probably right. $300,000 is a very high estimate. I’d love to know where she flew with the stolen miles.
2 million skymiles, a.k.a. skypesos, are worth at most $30,000, not $300,000.
This woman is unlikely savvy enough to know how to maximize “redemption value”. She probably has realized less than a penny per mile. In any case, someone who steals miles probably does not care about redemption value anyway.
If this case goes to trial, the jury is going to look at the actual value of those tickets she redeemed miles for. I suspect it will be under $20,000.