Alaska

What Alaska Airlines Did When My Account Was Hacked – Live and Let's Fly

Published

2 months ago

June 9, 2024

What Alaska Airlines Did When My Account Was Hacked – Live and Let's Fly

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My Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account was compromised, but when I contacted the airline to correct it, I was shocked by the response.

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I’ve Been Saving Them For Years

Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan is an incredibly lucrative loyalty program for a few reasons. First, they partner for earning and redeeming with (11) carriers from a combination of Skyteam, Star Alliance, and independent carriers. That’s in addition to (soon) 15 oneworld Alliance members. Second, its redemption rates are below many peers.

While I could credit American flights (now) to Alaska Airlines that hasn’t always been the case, and there are few opportunities to fly the carrier directly from Pittsburgh.

However, over the years I have accrued miles in the program and amassed enough to make a valuable redemption. It’s been around 5-6 years that I started accruing through various random partner flights that made sense to credit to the carrier and transactions. I have a need, a one-way from Europe to the United States that I would like to redeem in business class for three people and an infant. I found the space but then I noticed a problem.

Devastation

Rather than more than 171,000 Mileage Plan miles, my balance showed at just 1,627. My heart sank, I panicked. It was more than just the fact that I couldn’t make my redemption and lost out on thousands, perhaps nearly as much as $10,000 in value if I were to buy the one-way tickets in cash. It felt like someone had been in my home, had gone through my things, and left most of it as they found it, but took this one thing of value and importance.

There are a few quirks about Mileage Plan’s site and one of them is that recent activity doesn’t show anything as a default older than three months. To see more activity, one must select “Filters Applied” and even then, it categorizes earnings first by method (five choices) before a second section offers three, six, 12 and 24 months.

alaska airlines mileage plan fraud hacked redemptions

Selecting 24 months revealed that whoever compromised my account booked high end Qatar Airways flights beginning in May of last year. Another significant redemption was made in December. It’s absolutely true that I have not checked this account frequently enough to notice. It’s also true that while I have Award Wallet, I haven’t paid attention and haven’t checked that in some time.

Shame on me.

Something else to consider is that my password still worked. Whoever compromised my account didn’t change my password at all so logging in for my redemption, I was none the wiser and it didn’t set off any alarm bells.

Quick, But Incomplete Resolution

Mileage Plan’s service center for matters of this nature (800-654-5669) is open 7 AM – 7 PM – no time zone or days of the week provided in my communication with the airline. My call was answered by Yolanda and admittedly, she was excellent. One point of concern was that I couldn’t recall my prior address off the top of my head and I had to look it up, but she was fine with this as I had verified the rest of my information but from a social engineering aspect, it felt like my honest recollection issue should have flagged it further for her.

She asked me to send a copy of my ID (passport or driver’s license) to their email address for this purpose. I did so and she verified my information further.

Within ten minutes, all of the stolen miles had been returned to my account, my email address I sent my ID from was my new address and all was well with the world again. I also added a redemption PIN.

But it wasn’t. I gave it about ten minutes for the changes to take hold, the miles appeared in my balance and I needed to tighten up my security and change my password. I couldn’t quickly find a way to determine the email address, phone, or even physical address I have on file with Alaska. However, when I went to reset my password, there it was. The email address and phone number that the perpetrators had changed were still there and hadn’t been updated to my phone number (provided on the call) nor the email (I sent my ID from.)

alaska airlines mileage plan fraud hacker details

As such, I couldn’t change my password online, it would just alert the thieves that I was doing so. I had to again call in, authorize myself in, and have it changed over the phone.

By not changing it as agreed, I could have flagged that the miles had been replaced, that I was aware of the security issue and suggested to those that hacked, engineered, or otherwise compromised my account that they book something from the replacement miles right away.

Satisfied Customer

In the end, I am impressed by a few things. While Yolanda didn’t get the email and phone number updated as I had expected, she was really kind, helpful, and patient. And while Alaska Airlines might need to brush up some security protocols, they did the right thing in empowering agents to rectify problems like this without involving a manager, or extensive documentation process.

I remain concerned that I didn’t receive an email from Alaska saying that my details (email and phone number) had been changed initially. Those would have caused me to jump in and alert them of the compromise before any miles were redeemed in the first place and secure my account.

However, in the end, the miles were replaced by a friendly rep capable of solving my problem right away. It’s hard to get mad about that.

Conclusion

It could have been far worse. I could have faced a lengthy process to prove my identity. I had already thought about how Alaska could verify it wasn’t me from the IP address used to purchase the tickets, to unusual travel patterns; we could have looked at when the email address was changed in relation to the first redemption. It’s possible that Alaska would have viewed the transactions as too old to credit back and done nothing at all. But in the end, the airline spared me from any of that. The value from the program remains exceedingly valuable and if anything, it encouraged me to check my accounts more often, update my security, and probably double down on Alaska Airlines in the future. It’s easy to look like a great airline when everything is going right, but when there are challenges like this one, they made it easy to resolve and rose to the occasion.

What do you think? Have you had your account compromised? How was your experience?

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Alaska

Weekend rain and sun for Alaska

Published

40 mins ago

July 26, 2024

Press Room

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Rainy, windy weather greeted southcentral on Friday. Unsettled weather will keep a dearth of clouds, rain showers, even some snow showers over the state through the weekend. Temperatures cooled considerably along the north slope and interior with the rain’s arrival.

Southcentral is on the lucky end of the weather pattern, expecting to see clearing skies, drying conditions and sunshine into the weekend.

An upper trough is driving the wet weather across the state.

This is the first round of wet weather, with another big storm arriving over the Aleutians and western Alaska on Sunday. Southcentral can anticipate the return of wet weather by Monday.

Southeast will see showers, and cloudy skies. Highs in the low to mid 60s.

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Alaska

Troopers responding to reported gunfire in Southwest Alaska village find a house fire and human remains

Published

8 hours ago

July 26, 2024

Press Room

Troopers responding to reported gunfire in Southwest Alaska village find a house fire and human remains

By Anchorage Daily News

Updated: 1 hour ago Published: 2 hours ago

Aniak (Amazon River Adventure via Creative Commons)

Alaska State Troopers who were called to the village of Aniak on Thursday for reports of gunfire found a home engulfed by flames and later found human remains inside, they said.

Several people in the village had reported hearing random gunshots, although there were no reports of threats or anyone being shot at, said troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel. Aniak-based troopers and wildlife troopers were patrolling the village near the slough around 11:30 a.m. to try to find the source of the sporadic gunfire when they saw a house fully engulfed by flames, McDaniel said.

They worked with community members to suppress the fire, and later the remains of the homeowner were found inside, troopers said.

During the investigation, troopers identified the homeowner as the person suspected to be firing a gun, McDaniel said. The remains will be sent to the State Medical Examiner Office for an autopsy to determine the cause of death, McDaniel said.

The State Fire Marshal’s Office will investigate the cause and origin of the fire.

Aniak is situated along the Kuskokwim River roughly 90 air miles northeast of Bethel.

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

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Alaska

I've lived in Alaska for over 35 years. Here are 6 mistakes I always see tourists make when visiting the state.

Published

15 hours ago

July 26, 2024

Press Room

I've lived in Alaska for over 35 years. Here are 6 mistakes I always see tourists make when visiting the state.

Tourism is an important part of life in Alaska. In fact, last year, tourism brought in nearly $158 million in revenue for the state.

As someone who’s lived in Alaska for over 35 years, it’s easy to see why tourists love traveling here. From the beautiful national parks to opportunities to see the northern lights, Alaska has something for everyone.

However, every year, I see many visitors make the same mistakes over and over. From expecting to drive everywhere to forgetting that some activities are seasonal, these are the six most common mistakes I’ve seen tourists make when visiting my home state.

Thinking Alaska is small and drivable

Alaska has a limited road network.

Lisa Maloney

I’m always surprised by how many visitors think Alaska is small — but I guess if you’re used to seeing us tucked into a map inset right next to Hawaii, that makes sense.

In truth, Alaska is so big that if you split it into two states, both halves would be bigger than Texas. You can easily spend four to six hours — or more — just driving from one large community to the next.

However, Alaska has a shockingly limited road network for such a huge state. If we say a community is “off the road system,” it means you can’t drive there. Instead, you’ll have to catch a plane or, in some limited cases, a boat to get there.

Not learning the local vocabulary

In Alaska, we have lots of local lingo that can be helpful to know. For example, if someone says they’re going outside, they’re not just leaving the building — they’re leaving the state. To us, outside means anywhere that’s not Alaska.

Another thing to remember is that we don’t typically use road numbers for our highways (no matter what your GPS tries to tell you). Instead, we use the names of highways.

Forgetting that some attractions and activities are seasonal

In Alaska, the northern lights can typically be seen between late August and late April.

biletskiyevgeniy.com/Shutterstock

Here in Alaska, some of our biggest attractions are only available for a few months of the year.

Two big ones to keep in mind are bear viewing season, which typically peaks with the salmon runs in July and August, and aurora viewing season, which runs from roughly late August to late April.

Missing out on Alaska Native culture

The umbrella term for Alaska’s Indigenous people is Alaska Native. Most towns have at least one cultural center where visitors can learn about the Alaska Native traditions in that region.

These facilities are part visitor center and part museum, and offer a celebration of Native traditions and culture. I always recommend that tourists take the time to explore these centers.

Expecting the wildlife — or the weather — to be predictable

You never know where you might find wildlife in Alaska.

Lisa Maloney

Every year, Alaska tour guides field sincere questions like “When are the moose scheduled to show up?” That makes perfect sense in a controlled environment like a zoo, but Alaska’s wildlife are … well, wild … and come and go whenever they like.

Our weather does pretty much the same thing, so if you’re determined to hide inside until the rain and wind stop or the sun comes out, you’ll miss out on a lot.

Dressing in layers can help visitors stay comfortable, no matter what the weather is doing. I recommend lighter layers in the summer and heavier layers in winter, but some sort of weatherproof outer layer is always a must.

Trying to do too much in one trip

When traveling to a new location, there’s a lot of pressure to visit as many destinations as possible. But if you never take a minute to enjoy just being here, you’re missing out on a big chunk of the Alaska experience.

Plus, having a little flex time in your schedule helps to accommodate inevitable weather days when excessive wind, rain, or rough seas keep you from doing planned activities. I recommend giving yourself two or three days in a community before moving on.

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