Some AAdvantage accounts have been compromised

American Airlines has sent many AAdvantage members an email detailing what seems to be the a large scale unauthorized access to numerous AAdvantage accounts.

This information has been confirmed by some members of the American Airlines Executive Platinum Fliers group on Facebook and members of the FlyerTalk community.

Those whose account that have been affected were given a new AAdvantage account number and were told to change their account credentials (passwords, etc). Some affected members are reporting that American changed the expiration of some of their upgrades (systemwide upgrades) to 2017. However, their e500s upgrades are not showing up in their new account.

The email sent out to the affected AAdvantage account holders reads:

“Dear X,

As the result of unauthorized access to your AAdvantage account, we are providing you with a new AAdvantage account number. We will contact you again shortly with additional details, but in the meantime we have taken this action to help protect the security of your account.

Please be sure to use AAdvantage account 123ABCD for all of your mileage earning and redemption activity. If you earn miles through any of our partners or book your flights through a travel agency or corporate booking tool, we recommend you update your account number with them.

All transactions and balances from the compromised account are included in account DCBA321, and there is a balance of XXX,XXX miles available for award redemption.

To see additional account information, please login on AA.com with the new AAdvantage account number, and select Forgot/Need Password from the Login screen to create a new password. Do not use the same password that you used previously, and do not use the same password you use on other online sites. While you are logged into your account, we recommend you review your email and notification selections to ensure they are set properly.

If you have any questions about your account, please contact us at your convenience. We apologize for the inconvenience and will email you again soon with additional information.

Regards,

AAdvantage Customer Service

American Airlines

It looks like the issue is mostly affecting old AAdvantage accounts, in particular those 10+ years old.

Additionally, it is important that ALL affected members call the AAdvantage Desk today, Monday, and figure out how to fix the following issues:

• Earning miles if you have an AAdvantage credit card (linking to your new account)
• Admirals Club membership (if you have it)
• Partner miles (oneworld airlines, hotels, car rentals, etc.)
• Business Extra account (if you have one)
• Changing your AA# on existing reservations (if you have any)

I would also ask for clarification as the email is kind of ambiguous to say the least. If you have upcoming travel (especially today) and you have elite status, I would recommend carrying your elite status card with you to help you through the airport process.

This issue seems to be fairly new, and not isolated, so make sure that if you, or someone you know, were affected that it gets looked into immediately.

TIP – Don’t use the same password for many different accounts.

If you have any details that could help others being affected by this please post it in the comments section.