Australian airline Qantas has apologized to customers after a technical issue with its loyalty app led to the data of thousands of passengers being breached.
The issue, which has since been resolved, allowed customers to view the personal details of other passengers, including names, boarding passes, and upcoming flights.
Qantas said “some” frequent flyers had been able to view the travel information of other customers, such as their name, upcoming flight details, and points balance.
In a statement posted on Wednesday morning, the Australian airline said current investigations indicated that the data breach was caused by a technology issue related to recent system changes and that no cybersecurity incident had led to the issues.
“At this stage, there is no indication of a cyber security incident,” the airline said. "We sincerely apologise to customers impacted by the issue with the Qantas app this morning, which has now been resolved.”
“No further personal or financial information was shared and customers would not have been able to transfer or use the Qantas Points of other frequent flyers. We’re not aware of any customers travelling with incorrect boarding passes.”
Qantas Data Breach
Qantas said would not have been able to transfer or use the Qantas Points of other frequent flyers and was not aware of any customers travelling with incorrect boarding passes.
But many Qantas app users reported the problem on social media and said the app was allowing them to change and even cancel strangers' seats, flights and transfer points.
“Hey Qantas, I’m pretty sure whatever app issue this warning is about is not entirely resolved because every time I refresh I’ve got someone else’s name, point balance, and status…” one user wrote on X, sharing screenshots of other passengers' personal data.
Another user said: “I went to the app today to have a look at all my trips and noticed I was logged on to some obscure frequent flyer account.”
"My trips were all there but the upcoming trips' names, status and points displayed were all wrong. Every time I was forced to shut down the app there was a different person. 'Makes me concerned that the same thing is happening to my account somewhere.”
Responding to users on X on Wednesday morning, Qantas said the app was now working correctly and that the issue had been resolved. It is not yet known the extent of the breach.
“The issue was isolated to the Qantas app with some frequent flyers able to see the travel information of other customers, including name, upcoming flight details, points balance and status.
“No further personal or financial information was shared and customers would not have been able to transfer or use the Qantas Points of other frequent flyers. We’re not aware of any customers travelling with incorrect boarding passes.”
