JetBlue agent arrested for defrauding carrier
A former JetBlue gate agent has been charged with wire fraud and could face a stiff fine and up to 20 years in prison.
Tiffany Jenkins, 30, is accused of manipulating the JetBlue reservations system to give friends and family more expensive flights than they originally booked.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, District of Massachusetts, Jenkins used a special code reserved for passengers who had missed connections or had to travel last minute due to bereavement.
The code allows an override to enable a change of route at no extra cost.
"Many of those exchanges occurred after the passenger was first booked on domestic flights at one of the airline company’s lowest available fares — often, roundtrip flights between Las Vegas, Nevada, and Long Beach," the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
"A short time later, Jenkins exchanged those tickets for a completely different city pair, generally involving much more expensive international locations, for friends, family and acquaintances."
Prosecutors say she changed 505 flights for more than 100 passengers over more than a year from July 2016.
"We will fully cooperate with any external investigation brought by the DOJ if asked," JetBlue said in a statement.
She made a first appearance in federal court following her arrest and was then released.
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