air travel

Keep Your Frequent Flyer, Loyalty Accounts Safe From Thieves

A Texas man learned the hard way but thankfully, NBC Responds was able to help.

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If you’ve accumulated airline miles or any other loyalty points, you’re going to want to make sure they’re locked down.

Especially after hearing this Texas man’s story.

Ron Harris was at work when he got an email that 14,000 of his American Airlines miles were redeemed for an upcoming trip.

Problem was, he wasn’t the one who redeemed them.

“I was like, ‘Okay, I’m getting on the phone and calling,’” Harris said.

Harris says he learned he couldn’t get the missing miles back.

“Knowing that it wasn't something that I had done and just taking that as a loss, that just it didn't sit well with me and I wanted to get something done about it,” Harris said.

Harris contacted our NBC Responds team in Dallas.

A day later, Harris says the airline asked him to submit a police report, then the airline credited the miles back into his account.

In an email to NBC, American Airlines says, “Our team conducted an investigation and determined that the redemption of miles in this case was most likely fraudulent activity. We have since replenished the customer’s miles balance in a new account. We encourage customers who suspect fraud to reach out to our customer relations department.”

Nick Ewen is better known as “The Points Guy.”

“Under most circumstances, airlines will hopefully be able to get them back to you, but it's really going to depend on the situation. So that's why it's really important to be proactive rather than reactive,” Ewen said.

Ewen says miles, or any loyalty rewards, can be a target for a thief.

“Whether you're using your airline miles for a flight, your hotel points for a hotel room or even your credit card points for gift cards, they can truly translate into value. And that's what some of these fraudsters are going after,” he said.

He says protect your loyalty accounts like you would your bank account by:

--Keeping your loyalty account or frequent flyer number private

--Creating a strong password and using a two-factor authentication if it’s available

--Monitoring your accounts, logging in regularly and enabling email notifications to give you a heads up about account activity

“In many cases, they're hoping that you're not checking your accounts, you don't have your emails enabled, and you may not even know that they're gone until you go and look to use them. And by then, it may be too late,” Ewen said.

One more important tip if you have miles or loyalty accounts - don’t use the same password for different accounts.

If one gets hacked, that means other accounts are then at risk, and your personal information tied to those accounts, too.

American Airlines helped Harris change his account number and password. Now, he looks to using his hard-earned miles on his own accord.

“Don’t give up, turn to someone that has some power that is able to get your story out there,” Harris said. If you’d like to reach the NBC CT Responds team, fill out the form here.

Note: NBC 5 Responds reporter Diana Zoga contributed to this story.

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