Air NZ quiet over air points scam

Air New Zealand is keeping quiet about its exposure of an Australian scam artist who amassed 17.6 million frequent-flyer points from nine airlines without leaving the ground.

Prosecutors in a case against Melbourne man Austin Perrott, who pleaded guilty in the Victorian County Court yesterday to nine charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception, said the points were valued at more than $789,000.

The court heard that the Singapore Airlines customer services supervisor spent 6 1/2 years to October 2002 notching up the points, using them to buy accommodation and travel, and selling some to friends.

Australian media reports say Perrott, aged in his mid-40s, used 29 accounts to exploit a computer system irregularity to gather points from Air NZ and eight other airlines: Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, United Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Finnair.

At an earlier hearing, in June, the court heard how Perrott found he could add names to passenger lists for flights that had departed or landed, before they were automatically sent to airline frequent-flyer programmes.

Friends at Qantas gave Perrott a password to their airline's computer system, which he found also worked on those of several other airlines at Melbourne airport, including Air NZ's.

Although he tried to deflect potential attention from himself by distributing points evenly into a multitude of accounts, an internal investigation by Air NZ late in 2002 found he had become a "Gold Elite" member from his activities from one computer terminal at the airport.

Despite Air NZ's key role in bringing Perrott to book, spokeswoman Rosie Paul said it was a "historic" case and the airline did not want to discuss it.

Perrott has yet to be sentenced.