A traveler learned the hard way not to share airline ticket details online after claiming a stranger used them to cancel her once-in-a-lifetime trip, and she’s now warning others to avoid the same mistake.
Melissa Doherty, an Irish woman living in the Australian outback, said she received an unexpected email from Qantas Airways informing her that an upcoming flight from Cairns to Singapore had been canceled, according to a now-viral TikTok.
Doherty said this happened after she excitedly, and perhaps “innocently,” posted a video celebrating her dream trip, which showed her some 3,000 followers the flight’s booking reference number for her and her boyfriend, Adam.
With that information, as well as her last name listed on her TikTok profile, Doherty said someone was successfully able to cancel her flights without her knowledge or consent.
“I feel like I'm gonna vomit at every given moment, because I just think that is the lowest of the low,” Doherty said in a TikTok explaining the situation. “Like, how jealous can you be? Let me be happy. Let me live my life.”
In a follow-up TikTok, Doherty claimed that a Qantas customer service representative informed her that the cancellation had been completed through the website.
“She said that there's nothing else that they can do,” Doherty added. “She said that she can tell us what time it was done and what date it was done, but it doesn't tell her on the system whether it was done by me, whether it's done by [my boyfriend] Adam, or whether it's done by someone else.”
Doherty said she paid $1,200 AUS ($781.68 USD) for the flights, but the initial cancellation email stated she would only be refunded $800 AUS ($521.12 USD).
However, she claimed the helpful Qantas representative issued the remaining $400 AUS ($260.56 USD), ensuring that she received a full refund.
A Qantas spokesperson told The Independent in a statement, “Like other airlines, Qantas cautions customers against posting boarding passes online. We understand this would have been a disappointing experience for Ms Doherty. She has been rebooked onto an alternate service, and we are processing a full refund.”
This unexpected incident does have a happy ending as Doherty revealed that the pair rebooked the flights and are moving on from the stranger’s shady actions.
“For all the d***heads out there, yes, I have learned my lesson,” Doherty said in her video update. “Don't trust people on the internet.”
