TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) - A senior class trip to Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla., ended in disappointment for students at Oklahoma Union High School.
"As many of you know the OKU Class of 2022 has worked very hard to raise money for our senior class trip to Orlando, FL to go to Universal Studios. Upon arrival to the Springfield-Branson National Airport we found out we had recently been scammed by hackers pretending to be Allegiant Airlines,” one Facebook post said.
According to OKU Schools Superintendent Brenda Taylor, the group of 40 students arrived to the Springfield-Branson National Airport to find there were no airline tickets for their flight.
“When we arrived this morning we had been informed that we had been scammed,” Taylor said. “We looked up the number online for Allegiant Airlines, called the number and the number that we got ahold of represented themselves as Allegiant reservation desk at Allegiant Airlines.”
District officials had been in contact with the alleged “reservation desk” for a few months and were even given a group booking number and confirmation email.
“We were in contact all the way up into the day before and they tried to say the flight had been canceled,” Taylor said. “They later came back and said they were mistaken and guaranteed we had confirmation.”
The school district said the senior class worked all year to raise money from sponsors and put on fundraisers for the trip.
“I am very proud of them and we are going to make the best of our time here in Springfield,” Taylor said.
Allegiant released this statement when NewsChannel 8 inquired about the mishap:
Unfortunately, it appears the group has been the victim of fraud perpetrated by a third party outside of Allegiant.
Bad actors advertising fraudulent call-in numbers and websites, posing as legitimate travel services, or even representing themselves as airlines, are common in the industry. Unfortunately, these scams grew throughout the pandemic.
If someone in the group used a credit card for their transaction, the best course of action is to follow up with the bank associated with it. Representatives there can take a fraud report and help recover lost funds. We are very sorry that this happened to the group and will be glad to assist with any investigation.
We hope you will use this incident as reason to remind your viewers to always verify they are calling their airline directly. One simple way to do so is to visit their official website for customer contact information.
Please let your viewers know that Allegiant doesn’t partner with third parties such as Expedia, Travelocity, or any other travel-related website or call center. Customers can only book with us on Allegiant.com or by calling our customer service department at 702-505-8888.