Fake airline tickets are small in number; however, you do want to use some "street-smarts" before pu

Fake airline tickets are small in number; however, you do want to use some "street-smarts" before purchasing an airline ticket. On a past trip that we took to Spain, car rentals in australia we purchased a ticket out of an office in Florida. They were advertising extremely low airfares to Europe. With our knowledge in the Travel Industry we were a little reluctant; however, they assured us they purchased them at a discounted price from a wholesaler and were passing the savings on. They won our trust, we purchased the tickets thinking we had saved a bundle.
We departed New York bound for Madrid with no problems. As we attempted to board for our return flight we were detained and questioned thoroughly regarding the validity of the tickets. The airline personnel said they were fake airline tickets and we were not permitted to board. They confiscated car rentals in australia the tickets and offered us the opportunity to purchase new tickets for a different flight. This particular flight was already overbooked.
We were in utter shock, how could we be traveling on fake airline tickets? We'd paid for them! In all our years in the travel industry we never came across a fake ticket, until now. We were dumbfounded.
My wife was hysterical with the ticket agents; however, they would not issue a boarding pass. We waited anxiously at the ticket desk hoping some agent would give in to our dilemma. Just minutes before final boarding, a quite ticket agent approached us with 2-boarding passes and said, "Take them, go or you'll car rentals in australia miss your flight". We left immediately, boarded the plane, waiting in anticipation that a flight attendant would come and ask us to leave. It wasn't until the plane was airborne did we finally feel some relief.
How was it possible , of all people, we were duped into getting a fake airline ticket? Even though counterfeit tickets are relatively small in number, about $4 million a year, there are some things you want to watch for when purchasing your ticket.
There is no real way to tell if your ticket is fake or not but you can take some precautions . Tickets written by hand should send a "red flag" to you. It's very unusual for a legitimate agency to issue hand written tickets. Tickets that are extremely low in price should also send the "red flag" flying. This is probably the most common, extremely low fares. If it's "too good to be true" it probably isn't true..
The way these counterfeiters work is quite simple. Usually it involves an inside person who understands the ticketing process. The counterfeiter takes a legitimate ticket and doctors it up. It may include an upgrade to first class, stop-overs, etc. The ticket appears more valuable and has often changed hands several times before finally reaching you, the buyer.
To protect yourself from possible fake airline tickets , stay away from paper tickets because they can be doctored up. Purchase an E-Ticket , they are less vulnerable to any type of fraud and always make sure the ticket isn't underfared . It's great to save money while traveling and purchase the least expensive ticket but you also want to make sure you're not purchasing a fake airline ticket. Use a quality known travel agent such as AAA Travel Services or a well established on-line ticket agent.