British Airways freezes some frequent-flyer accounts in wake of hack

Tens of thousands of British Airways customers have had their frequent-flyer accounts temporarily frozen in the wake of a security breach.

“British Airways has become aware of some unauthorised activity in relation to a small number of frequent-flyer executive club accounts. This appears to have been the result of a third party using information obtained elsewhere on the internet, via an automated process, to try to gain access to some accounts,” the company has confirmed.

“We would like to reassure customers that at this stage we are not aware of any access to any subsequent information pages within accounts, including travel histories or payment card details.”

Customers who complained directly to the company about their Avios points (frequent flyer currency of British Airways) having been stolen received a reply pointing them towards their local Executive Club service centre for immediate help.

“We will be able to reactive your account by asking you some additional security questions,” they noted.

The affected users will also have to reset their passwords, and are advised to do the same on other online accounts where they used the same password.

In the email, the company hinted that the accounts were accessed by the attackers using login information for a different online service.

No more details about the breach have been shared at this moment.