British Airways frequent-flyer accounts hit by hackers

British Airways confirmed on Sunday that accounts of tens of thousands of its frequent flyers were hacked.

BA, owned by International Consolidated Airlines Group, said some accounts had to be frozen, while some fliers were temporarily not able to use or cash in their air miles.

Hackers broke into the airline's data system “via an automated process”, as confirmed by a company's spokesman, though no personal data was used.

"British Airways has become aware of some unauthorised activity in relation to a small number of frequent flyer executive club accounts," a spokesman said.

"We would like to reassure customers that, at this stage we are not aware of any access to any subsequent information pages within accounts, including travel histories or payment card details."

The airline added that it had taken a number of steps to "lock down accounts" when the problem was first raised. It is expected to be resolved within "a day or two if not sooner," a spokesperson added.