Some people pay for their flights with money. Some use travel card reward points. Others use frequent-flyer miles. Apparently, though, if you use “pretending to be a flight attendant” to get free flights, that’s a crime? You wouldn’t think that would be the case, but a federal jury just convicted Florida’s Tiron Alexander for doing exactly that, finding him guilty on charges of wire fraud and entering into a secure area of an airport by false pretenses. According to the Department of Justice, Alexander took 34 free flights on one airline but booked more than 120 flights before he was caught.
So, how did he do it? He used airline web portals meant for pilots and flight attendants and then provided false “employer, date of hire, and badge number information.” He also varied which airlines he claimed to work for, using about 30 different badge numbers across seven airlines. He also posed as a flight attendant on three other airlines. Perhaps most surprisingly, he was able to keep his scheme going for six years, beginning in 2018 and continuing through 2024, when he was ultimately caught. That means he flew for free, taking more than 100 flights, for six years, and no one noticed until just last year.
Sure, what he was doing was technically illegal, but you have to admit, it was also kind of genius.
Catch me if you can
Sadly, the courts don’t give out awards for innovation in criminality, except in the form of criminal sentences, and now that he’s been found guilty, Alexander will be sentenced on August 25. Wire fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, while entering into a secure area of an airport by false pretenses carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. Still, it’s unlikely that Alexander will actually be sentenced to a full 30 years in prison, as those are maximums, and federal sentencing guidelines also come into play. That said, Alexander carried out his fraud more than 100 times across multiple air carriers over the course of several years, so don’t expect the judge to go easy on him, either.
It may seem like it would have just been easier for Alexander to get an actual job as an actual flight attendant, but since COVID-19 turned that dream job into a mess, that isn’t the case. In fact, many flight attendants can barely afford to feed themselves. Also, your uniform might contain so much formaldehyde that you so sick, you end up having to sue your employer. Oh, and don’t forget that turbulence continues to get worse. Passengers may be able to protect themselves from the worst of it by wearing their seatbelts, but flight attendants mostly just have to hope there’s no surprise turbulence during drink service.
The biggest question, though, is how Alexander obtained the fake badge numbers that allowed him to book all those free flights. Unfortunately for everyone who desperately wants the answer to that question, Jalopnik does not have a PACER login, so the court documents that likely contain those answers are currently inaccessible, and other coverage of the case provides no explanation that I could find. Then again, maybe that’s for the best, so none of you are tempted to book a few free flights yourselves. Not that any of you would ever try anything like that. As we now know, pretending to be a flight attendant to get free flights is very illegal.
