Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) has replaced an unrevealed number of the Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK) Mileage Plan Visa Credit Cards as a safety measure to protect customers from fraudulent and malicious people who attempt to compromise the data on the credit card.
The Alaska Airlines, however, assured its customers that the airline systems were not compromised in any way and that the move by the bank will not have a major impact on the safety of customer data. It’s alleged that an anonymous number of Alaska Airlines Visa Credit Cards could have suffered from various data infringement cases. On April 13 this year, the bank deactivated most of the old credit cards and the new ones sent immediately to the airline customers.
The Bank of America confirmed that the move to replace the cards is a normal routine that the bank undertakes when the information on the credit cards is suspected to be compromised. The bank, however, did not disclose any specific reason why the airline’s credit cards were reissued. The Alaska Airline spokeswoman, Halley Knigge said that it was not the responsibility of the airline to reissue the cards.
The Bank of America had earlier issued warnings to the airlines’ customers through their emails and electronic devices early this month that there could be a possibility of credit card data being compromised at a third-party location or at an unspecified merchant. According to the Bank of America spokeswoman, Diane Wagner, the possible compromise was not limited to any one credit card or bank. The impact could be enormous and uncontrollable.
Any bank generally is responsible for the safety of the information of their customers’ accounts. The bank of America is in charge of monitoring the activities of the customer accounts to detect any potential fraud schemes. If there is any slight suspicion of a customer’s card being at any risk, they usually notify the customer immediately and replace the card. In this case, the Bank of America refused to give details on how many customer accounts were involved in the alleged fraud. The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan has 17 international and domestic airline partners who travel to more than 800 destinations around the globe. The Mileage plan was ranked the best in the overall customer fulfillment in last year.
