2018 will be remembered as a year of major airline data security theft and breaches. Already this year we have seen major breaches suffered by Air Canada, Cathay Pacific and British Airways. British Airways' data breach initially hit passengers who booked flights (revenue and Avios redemptions) during a limited period, which British Airways explained last…
Continue reading: British Airways Data Breach Worsens — Did You Redeem Avios?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Guys anyone can shed some light on the following.
I follow a couple of blogs dealing with travel and most of the owners include 'Travel Consultant " in their occupation. Some of their blog entries also mention things like "I had to catch up with work ....etc'
1) What does "Travel Consultant" mean?
2) Is it about advising Airlines or private customers on travel options?
Thanks
I did redeem Avios during the time period affected but I always use the "virtual account number" feature on my Citi card, which would be worthless if someone tried to use it. I also don't save my passport info... looks like my paranoia could help me!
Redeemed avois for Cathay award. Received notifications from both airlines on the same day letting me know of their respective data breach incidents. Double whammy for me.
So here’s what I don’t get. For all I know merchants are not supposed to store you CVV on their system. It is verified at time of transaction and that’s it.
If British Airways has those in their system, it may suggest that either my information is incorrect (that’s what my card issuer advised) or that BA is in breach of the credit card regultions
I redeemed Avios for a one way JL flight from KIX - PVG and I paid using the Citi Premier card (trying to get that 60K bonus).
A few weeks later I got a call/email/text from Citi saying that they'd detected fraud on my account. Someone made about 4 transactions of varying amounts (about $200 - $3900) on my Citi card. Luckily Citi was proactive and amazing about it and caught it before any more damage could be done. They cancelled that account and overnighted me a new card.
I was/am freaking out about the whole thing because who knows how deeply it could all go. I reached out to BA about it and got some generic answer about my "request" being forwarded to customer relations.
The whole thing sucks...but props to Citi.
I have never redeemed Avios, but I just discovered that someone fraudulently redeemed 45000 of my Avios in May 2018 for flights between China and Japan. I am trying to get my Avios back but BA is so busy due to the data breach that it's hard to reach the right people.
@Mike if this is anything like the previous (MageCart) breach, the data was scraped from the credit card payment form at the time you input your details.
The RiskIQ analysis is worth reading if you have a technical bent: https://www.riskiq.com/blog/labs/magecart-british-airways-breach/
BA sent their apologies my way upon which I called my card issuer. At the end of the day they don't see any need for immediate action and told me they would monitor my accounts.
Even with that kind of reassurance I remain highly sceptical though, I had an incident way before the mischief at BA happened, so time will tell ...
Was caught in the hack by one day - the first time period that BA said. Never received an email from BA. Got a replacement card anyway. Terrible the way they have handled this data theft. It's out of control, that is, BA lost control over their computer security.
Citi called me and told me they're shipping me a new Prestige card with new number due to 3rd party security breach, although they wouldn't tell me whom the culprit was.
Doesn't anyone realise that this mess and the "Act of God" outage in May 2017 all go back to one person: Alex Cruz? If BA is taking short cuts like Equifax with their computer operations, I wonder when Mr Cruz will start taking short cuts with aircraft maintenance. If that happens, it will not be the computers that crash.
Okay that's how my wife's card got compromised, it's from British Airways. Someone in France bought two tickets to Dubai in mid September. I am still dealing with it, had to sign a bunch of paperwork claiming that wasn't me
Redeemed BA miles (never quite understood this Avios thing) for a BA flight. (I know, pretty dumb)
Changed my Visa card the day I heard about this. So far no damage. I'd like some proactive compensation from BA though.
@katie C. Same with my Citi Premiere. What's annoying is that I think the new card number restarts my 24 month clock for TYP!
Yes, I was caught up in the British Airways Breach, redeemed avios for travel and paid with my card. Chase was very understanding and immediately sent me a new card. Still super lame that the thieves got a bunch of my personal information. Time to lock down all of the credit reports.
@BobNL
1) What does “Travel Consultant” mean?
- Same as ANY other consultant. They take your money and tell you what you already know in a way you don't understand so they make you feel like you get something new.
2) Is it about advising Airlines or private customers on travel options?
- They advise ANYONE who is willing to pay them money to let them tell you what you already know in a way you don't understand so they make you feel like you get something new.
N.B. McKinsey always deny these allegations in a way you don't understand so they make you feel like you should give them money to let them tell you what you already know in a way you don't understand so they make you feel like you get something new.
The Avios breach was made public weeks ago at the same time as the Cathay Pacific breach. You guys are really late with this article