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Taylor Thompson, 27, Tiana Fairfax, 29, both of Philadelphia, and Theodore Robinson, 29, of Upper Darby, each face seven counts of wire fraud in the case, United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero said.
The Indictment alleges that between December 2017 and August 2018, the employees, along with two other co-schemers, charged customers who wanted to change their itineraries lower fees than the airline required and pocketed the difference.
More than 1,700 flight reservations were affected, thus leaving the airline with more than $283,000 of missing funds, the US attorney said.
Thompson allegedly used their supervisory access with a major US airline headquartered in Florida, to change the reservations without assessing the charges, which were only to be waived in extenuating circumstances, such as the passenger's family member's death.
Fairfax and Robinson, who worked as customer service agents with the same airline, helped Thompson carry out the scheme, authorities said.
At one point, Thompson even asked an employee for access to their Cash App account in order to receive payments directly from customers, according to the Indictment.
In 2018, when Thompson was fired by the airline, a second co-schemer was approached to join the scheme in order to use their supervisory credentials in order to change flight reservations.
“As alleged, these defendants used access and privileges granted by virtue of their employment to cheat the airline reservation system and skim money off the top for themselves,” US Attorney Romero said.
“We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute fraud schemes wherever they occur.”
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