After I got home from work I stopped by the BoardingArea homepage and saw a couple of reports of British Airways Avios accounts being hacked.
I decided to read the articles from The Gate and Miles to Memories before checking in on my account.
It seems that many Avios accounts were hacked and British Airways may have used a preventative measure to protect others by locking their accounts and/ or zeroing the balance for now.
I tried logging into my account and got a message in red of “We are not able to recognize your membership number that you have supplied…”
I figured great, guess I’m one of the lucky ones to have an issue with this.
I reset my password which took under a minute and saw this:
Great, lucky me…
I then scrolled a bit further and was happy to see that Kim’s account seems to be OK.
I then scrolled a bit further to see My recent transactions.
The most recent transaction was from today, March 27, 2015. It showed a description of Ex-gratia. This was followed by a negative Avios balance which reflected the exact amount of points missing. (Among the missing Avios were those transferred from Amex points with a 40% bonus back in mid- January.)
I’ve gone on to read a couple of other reports of BA Avios accounts being compromised. It looks like calling in might come with a two-hour hold time so I think I’ll just wait it out for now and keep checking my account to make sure my balance returns.
If my points are not returned I’ll try to contact BA after the weekend.
What do you think- should I be worried about this issue or did BA temporarily remove the points to protect them from hackers?
Was your account compromised? If so, what is your course of action going to be?
Claudine- Definitely odd that they canceled your reservation unless they thought it was related to the hack. What kind of value are you getting for using Avios for a hotel stay?
Boraxo- I am wondering the same thing! I’d expect the account balance to be restored and am giving them until after the weekend. If I don’t see my Avios back by then, I’ll give them a call.
Tony- How long did it take you to get through to BA when you called? I heard it was a very long wait!
Mine was compromised and I had called in earlier, they said it was widespread and that I should receive the points back soon.. I hadn’t realize it was a hack at that point when I called.
I did a password reset and found a zero balance with all of the miles subtracted “ex gratia” on March 27.
Do I need to contact BA or are they going to automatically restore the affected accounts? I don’t need them back this instant, but it’s very troubling not to see even a general statement from BA.
Mine won’t let me in either. I don’t even want to reset the password. I can tell you that I booked a hotel with my Avios on Wed and for some reason they cancelled my reservation. I had to call in 2x (long story with rude CS on the first one), but the second call the CS agent told me she couldn’t see why my res was cancelled as I had a surplus of miles to use. So they were still there at that point.