BAEC requesting personal ID to respond to an email enquiry
Apr 21, 2019, 3:22 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Berkshire
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold, GGL/CCR, Hilton Diamond, Accor Plat, Pucci Fan Club
Posts: 1,779
BAEC requesting personal ID to respond to an email enquiry
Each time I send an email to BAEC requesting some help, i am asked for the following information which I am not comfortable to provide so end up calling them instead which is not always convenient.
Am I being too sensitive here? I was affected twice by the recent data breach and have no confidence in BAs data governance. I’m happy to provide some info but nothing appertaining to credit card or passport.
you will need to provide the following information in your enquiry before we can answer you:
• The registered postal address on your account
• The name of a nominee on your account, the last 4-digits of a saved credit card, or your full passport number
Please also make sure you've given us your account number.
Am I being too sensitive here? I was affected twice by the recent data breach and have no confidence in BAs data governance. I’m happy to provide some info but nothing appertaining to credit card or passport.
you will need to provide the following information in your enquiry before we can answer you:
• The registered postal address on your account
• The name of a nominee on your account, the last 4-digits of a saved credit card, or your full passport number
Please also make sure you've given us your account number.
Apr 21, 2019, 3:51 am
#3
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,953
Earlier thread for additional reference on this which relates to emailing the GGL team Strange reply from Exec Club - GDPR or phishing
Apr 21, 2019, 6:01 am
#6
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: London Stratford, E7
Programs: BAEC Gold! Thanks to FT
Posts: 3,378
Got to love Flyertalk, on one hand people think there’s no problem with off duty travel staff viewing PILS yet aren’t happy about sharing information to get their query answered.
Id much rather checks done than someone who’s not me cancelling my booking or changing my seat or food option. I think BA are way to far away from secure messaging within the BAEC
The twitter team ask for the same, I’m happy to share that at 3am if they are helping me with a query when nobody else is open.
The only think I’m not overly happy with is the pre flight email with a link that you can click on that will take you directly to MMB.
Apr 21, 2019, 8:31 am
#7
Join Date: Mar 2018
Posts: 608
But if all this info is required when you send a general question about T&C's it's bit overkill
Last year I wanted to specify Best Price Guarantee conditions and sent an email. First reply:
"Thank you for your query, we are happy to confirm that you can find the price of your flight if you enter departure, destination and dates on ba.com opening page"
I thanked them for reply and asked the question again. Second reply
"... we are happy to confirm you can find out best prices if you click Discover and select Find our cheapest flights"
I thanked them for reply and asked the question again. Third reply
"For security reasons we need you to supply following information..."
Last year I wanted to specify Best Price Guarantee conditions and sent an email. First reply:
"Thank you for your query, we are happy to confirm that you can find the price of your flight if you enter departure, destination and dates on ba.com opening page"
I thanked them for reply and asked the question again. Second reply
"... we are happy to confirm you can find out best prices if you click Discover and select Find our cheapest flights"
I thanked them for reply and asked the question again. Third reply
"For security reasons we need you to supply following information..."
Apr 21, 2019, 9:25 am
#9
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 38
Seems logical to me as I wouldn't want them to access my personal details for a general question that could be answered without having to provide all of my details.
Apr 21, 2019, 9:30 am
#10
Join Date: Mar 2014
Programs: BAEC Gold, IHG Spire Elite
Posts: 289
Emails will be encrypted (provided your own email provider is doing the right thing), and your personal information is exactly as safe as it was before: as the details they are after are a shared secret. They have them all in a convenient database!
Not a big deal, apart from the fact it adds another unnecessary roundtrip on the email exchange.
Not a big deal, apart from the fact it adds another unnecessary roundtrip on the email exchange.
Apr 21, 2019, 9:40 am
#11
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: London
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Posts: 576
Apr 21, 2019, 12:03 pm
#12
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Brexile in ADB
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Posts: 7,067
Emails will be encrypted (provided your own email provider is doing the right thing), and your personal information is exactly as safe as it was before: as the details they are after are a shared secret. They have them all in a convenient database!
Not a big deal, apart from the fact it adds another unnecessary roundtrip on the email exchange.
Not a big deal, apart from the fact it adds another unnecessary roundtrip on the email exchange.
https://money.cnn.com/2017/10/03/tec...nts/index.html
Email like everything stored electronically is by definition insecure.
Apr 21, 2019, 1:18 pm
#13
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
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Posts: 42,953
Not really. This is for the dedicated email for the GGL team not a general query or complaint email.
Apr 21, 2019, 1:51 pm
#14
Join Date: Mar 2014
Programs: BAEC Gold, IHG Spire Elite
Posts: 289
These days we use encryption at every layer by default, and it's very rare to transmit email without it.
I can go on about this at length, but it's very boring.
One thing that is extremely easy to do and remains easy to do is fake where an email is from. Anyone can pretend to send an email from me, and so it's very important to verify my identity every time before doing what I ask.
Apr 21, 2019, 3:29 pm
#15
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: DCA
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Posts: 50,262
While there is always a risk that emails can be hacked, the same can be said for phone calls, and even in-person visits to a counter could be subject to an impostor.
But, unless you are deliberately using a non-secure email system, pretty rare these days, I don't see the security issue. That is particularly so as to the physical address associated with the account or the last four digits of the credit card.
But, unless you are deliberately using a non-secure email system, pretty rare these days, I don't see the security issue. That is particularly so as to the physical address associated with the account or the last four digits of the credit card.