An ex-airline employee who worked for a major US carrier based in Dallas, Texas, used his knowledge of the industry to defraud Spirit Airlines by pretending to be a pilot to book free flights that were only reserved for aircrew.
Tiron Alexander, 35, now faces the prospect of spending up to 20 years in federal prison after a jury found him guilty of wire fraud following a lengthy investigation by the Transporation Security Administration (TSA).
According to court documents filed in a Florida district court, Alexander started working for the unnamed airline in 2015 until his arrest in October 2024, when his illegal scheme was finally uncovered.
Prosecutors had claimed that Alexander managed to carry out the audacious scheme for around six years by posing as either a pilot or flight attendant using the airline’s internal travel booking site.
How the fraud worked…
The scheme worked as follows:
- The airline gave pilots and flights access to no-cost flight reservations known as ‘non-revenue’ travel benefits.
- Aircrew could book these tickets through an internal travel booking site which included access to other airlines with which there were reciprocal agreements.
- To book a flight through this internal site, aircrew have to provide the name of their employer, along with their date of hire, and badge number information.
- Once booked, aircrew are provided with a standard ‘passenger number record’ or PNR just like any other passenger.
The jury looked at 34 flights that Alexander booked with Spirit Airlines by posing as either a pilot or flight attendant. To do so, Alexander had somehow obtained the badge numbers and dates of hire of 30 different airline employees from seven different airlines with reciprocal travel agreements with Spirit.
There is, however, evidence that Alexander posed as a flight attendant for an additional three different airlines and managed to book more than 120 free flights during his six-year ploy.
As well as being found guilty of wire fraud, the Florida jury was found Alexander guilty of entering into a secure area of an airport by false pretenses. The maximum sentence for wire fraud is 20 years imprisonment, while the second charge carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Alexander is due to be sentenced on August 25, 2025.
But don’t all airline employees get heavily discounted flight benefits?
Yes, the vast majority of airline employees do get access to heavily discounted flights on a space-available basis – often referred to as non-revving or non-revenue because the airline isn’t making any money off the booking.
That being said, it’s rare for airline employees to get completely free flights. The most common form of airline employee ticket is known as an ID90, which stands for ‘Industry discount 90%’ – as the name implies, the ticket is sold at a discount of 90% of what passengers would pay.
Some airlines also offer pilots and flight attendants free tickets as part of union-agreed contacts, especially to help aircrew ‘commute’ by air from where they live to their assigned base.
ID90s haven’t existed in a long time (their is a website id90.com with hotel, cruise, and car discounts for industry partners). They were replaced with ZEDs (Zonal Employee Discount). it is a dirt cheap standby ticket on another airline in which you employer-airline has an agreement with. Depending on what the two airlines have negotiated, these standby privilege’s may include the opportunity to sit in premium cabins. US based carriers also tend to have jumpseat agreements for their pilots, dispatchers, and flight attendants on other US based airlines, which is what I suspect this person was using, especially flight attendant agreements for cabin jumpseats since their is no vetting in CASS like the flight deck jumpseat