Want your personal details shared with random strangers? Fly WOW Airlines!

I recently flew from DUB (Dublin) to SFO (San Francisco) on the discount airline WOW. Flying with a discount provider means paying for every little thing - checked bags, meals, water - that much is to be expected, but you'd seldom think paying less for a flight also means compromising your personal information. That's exactly what happened on my trip.

My scheduled route was DUB to KEF (Iceland, where WOW is based), and then KEF to SFO. There was a delay of about 3 hours leaving KEF due to weather, so many other passengers and I missed our connecting flight from KEF to SFO. This happens from time to time when traveling, no matter what airline you're on. So no big deal there.

When we arrived at KEF, WOW notified those of us destined for SFO that we'd be rerouted to DFW (Dallas). As far as I know, WOW doesn't fly from DFW to SFO, so they then scheduled flights for us on United Airlines from DFW to DEN to SFO.

I got a huge surprise when I went to the United site to check on my flight using the provided booking number. Whatever WOW employee scheduled the flights apparently had no idea what they were doing, as they scheduled all of the passengers going from Dallas to San Francisco in the same booking. So I now saw the personal details of all the other passengers, including names, birthdays, phone numbers, and other info. Screenshot with redactions:

Not only were our personal details compromised, but I also realized I could do a number of nasty things like change passenger names or cancel the entire booking. Nice!

Spoiler: I didn't cancel the whole reservation.

But I did file complaints about the privacy violation with the Attorney General of California and with the FAA. So far, the FAA has responded and is contacting WOW about the complaint.

So.. Flyer beware? Potential investors in WOW should also be concerned. A company with a culture of ignoring customer privacy is one mistake away from a larger breach.

For potential flyers, you might be tempted by the cheap price, but you'll end up saying #WowThisAirlineSucks just like me.