Reader reporter can’t believe it – Franco Blaser suddenly finds himself without a flight: “My ticket was canceled by a stranger”

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Franco Blaser (58) from Minusio TI is in a desperate situation: his plane ticket suddenly disappears. The Ticino native is stranded in Switzerland but will have to return home to Augusta, Georgia, US, after a Christmas holiday spent with his mother in the southern canton. Blaser: “My ticket was canceled by a stranger without my knowledge!” he complains.

This only came about by chance because a few days ago the computer specialist wanted to postpone his return flight from Zurich, Switzerland, to Charlotte (USA) via Frankfurt. When he cannot reach anywhere on the internet, he contacts the Swiss call center. It is said that he canceled his return flight.

Blaser is stunned, then ecstatic. “I never requested a cancellation,” the Reader reporter complains in an interview. On the other hand, Lufthansa subsidiary Switzerland, which was allowed to give Blick all the data and a copy of the reader’s correspondent ID, is adamant about the case. A spokesman says: “Mr Blaser telephoned to request that his return flight be cancelled.”

Victim of an act of revenge?

Blaser has a report of the cancellation from the call center. This shows that a stranger, pretending to be Franco Blaser, registered with the Swiss chatbot with his surname, first name and booking code and was then forwarded to a call center employee. Upon request they will cancel the ticket and refund $75 to the credit card.

However, Blaser will not receive cancellation confirmation via e-mail or SMS. But he assumes the $75 credit on his account is compensation for the expenses; because his luggage on the outbound flight arrived a few weeks later. Wrong idea! It’s about refunding taxes and fees owed to him even though his ticket is non-refundable. That’s why Blaser can’t immediately understand his situation. Now not only the flight is gone, but also the $1000 ticket.

Blaser has his suspicions: Someone from a Swiss call center is behind this. Because he had called Swiss call centers “countless times” due to the missing suitcase. “I had to deal with call center employees at different locations multiple times, where I had to explain my situation from the very beginning and retransmit all the booking information,” says Blaser. Annoying phone calls occasionally lead to heated arguments, which could have led to an “act of revenge.”

No two-factor authentication

Blaser can’t prove this. But he is surprised that Switzerland does not work with “tickets” like IT companies, that is, where service requests are stored in a system and visible to all call center employees. He also believes that Switzerland does not have adequate security measures for personal identification. “I could have prevented the revocation if there was two-factor authentication,” says Blaser.

Swiss explains that a hotline ticket is not opened with every call, but in more complex cases it is opened this way: “We are very sorry that this was not successful in this case.”

But during authentication everything was normal.

Andreas Gantenbein (49), president of air ticket wholesaler Aerticket Suisse, explains: When dealing with flight tickets, three pieces of data are usually requested: first name, surname and booking number, as well as usually email, date of birth or flight number. “Some airlines have a PIN for each flight ticket, and without that PIN nothing can be changed on the ticket.” In the current case, the expert sees no fault in Swiss, but finds it “very strange” that Blaser did not receive cancellation approval.

A Swiss team is currently handling the case. Blaser resigned: “It will take weeks.”

Source :Blick