Originally Posted by
onchanman
But the incident does point to some serious anomalies: with the passenger name and booking reference it is possible to change or cancel bookings online, and even check in (although for this you admittedly have to tick the box on the screen to say you have the passenger's authority to do so). And no attempt is made on the phone to verify the identity of the person identifying themselves as the passenger.
Any comment from BA??
If someone rings up and knows all the relevant details and verbally confirms that they are the passenger listed in the PNR they provided, then there's little else BA can do but to take them at their word. I imagine, though, that the call is recorded and a recording of the conversation could, if necessary and if required not too long after the call was made, ie before it was erased, be provided as proof that BA only made the any change in good faith in the belief that they were talking with the actual person.
The alternative would be to only allow changes at airport or city offices, where the pax would be required to show evidence of their identity to an agent before making changes.