Were British Airways Accounts Hacked… Again?!

British Airways reported that about a million of their accounts were hacked and they locked down those accounts.

Mine was among them, and I had to reset my password to regain access to my account. Once back in, I learned that they had temporarily removed all of my points. Yesterday those points were restored.

Then this morning I received another email, and I thought oh bloody @!#!@#, not again!

We have now locked down your online account to protect it from further access. As part of the lock-down process we have also changed your password and you will need to reset it before you are able to use your account.

Except… my account wasn’t locked and I have no problem accessing it. Perhaps their mass email database was hacked this time!

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. I figured this was just a late email. Haven’t been actively working this problem or looked beyond the email, but it sounded like they were: 1) blaming users; and 2) blaming somebody like AwardWallet.

    “We understand this was login information relating to a different online service which you may have also used to access your Executive Club account.”

  2. First time receiving their email today. Account was not locked out either. Only automated login we use is Norton 360. Hoping it was someone from BA who clicked “send all”

  3. Ha! I got that email an hour after I reset my password and thought that somehow that might have been new “suspicious activity” that triggered the email. Like Gary, I quickly discovered that my account was still accessible and they’re just sending out batch emails.

  4. I received the email and my account was locked down — again. I had just changed the password yesterday and had logged on just to confirm that my miles were there. And that was only after speaking with a customer service agent two days ago because I was unable to access it. When I mentioned that I had heard that some accounts had been hacked, he was almost curt in replying that no accounts had been hacked and that this was a security measure because there was unusual activity in my account. That unusual activity was me transferring my AmEx points into Avios and depositing them into my BA account, something I had done in the past without an issue. But what was strange is that I never received any sort of email notifying my that my account was frozen the first time around. I read the blogs and then had to call (and be on hold for half an hour) to find out. Strange.

  5. My BA account was drained, but balance was restored yesterday. No e-mail received. Today, I was forced to re-set the PIN for my Iberia account. Just coincidence?

  6. Didn’t receive either emails but checked my account today and found it locked. Points had been removed Mar 27 and reDeposited Mar 30. Hard to believe that so many of ‘us’ were part of the 1 million worldwide. What are the odds of that?

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