Many frequent flyers engage with airline loyalty programs to earn and redeem miles for flights, upgrades, car rental deals and other cost-saving measures and amenities.
But recent incidents with American Airlines (AAL) AAdvantage accounts include a couple of high-profile travel writers with their own experiences on the subject.
From these accounts, there appears to be at least anecdotal evidence that AAdvantage account fraud episodes are occurring with some frequency.
Gary Leff of the View From the Wing blog wrote on April 20 that he had corresponded with about a dozen readers in the past two weeks who said they had had miles stolen from their American Airlines accounts.
When an account is hacked, passengers have to get a new AAdvantage number. The theft victims are also required to report the crime to the police.
The process of reporting the theft can present its own set of troublesome difficulties.