I represented Chaim Zeev Rozen in a portion of his formal DOT complaint against Virgin Atlantic. Mr. Rozen had transferred points from a credit card to Virgin’s frequent flyer program in order to redeem travel for relatives who shared his last name. Inexplicably, Virgin cancelled the tickets — without telling him or the passengers.
I filed a Reply on Mr. Rozen’s behalf. I pointed out that, contrary to Virgin’s repeated claim and even its Answer, nothing about his conduct was “fraudulent.” I criticized Virgin’s “fraud detection tools” which supposedly “flagged the booking”. I pointed out that Virgin’s Answer was oddly silent on whether any human even attempted to check whether those tools were correct. I argued that Virgin did not act reasonably in the penalty it imposed and its handling of Mr. Rozen’s complaint and correspondence alleging error. I identified a DOT regulation and Virgin contract provision that were implicated.
The parties subsequently filed a Notice of Withdrawal of Complaint and Joint Motion to Dismiss, indicating that they reached an amicable resolution of the matter. A footnote in that filing explains specific improvements Virgin made: new tools to better identify actual fraud, a new process for customer complaints and appeals, and new communications to passengers indicating that bookings have been canceled. Kudos to Mr. Rozen for his role in bringing about these benefits for the traveling public.