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Travel agent caught stealing millions of BA mileage points
An Indian travel agent has been arrested for an elaborate con which netted him millions of British Airways frequent flyer miles.
Delhi police claim Damanpreet Singh Bedi, owner of Kipra Travels, had managed to siphon off more than 20 million mileage points from BA’s Avios loyalty programme.
"The Crime Branch received a complaint that mileage points of some of the fliers were redeemed illegally by unauthorised agencies in favour of other passengers, who were not entitled to avail the same," said Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police.
"Days into the investigation, we were led to IP addresses used for unauthorised access to create fake executive accounts."
Bedi was alleged to have redeemed Avios miles for flights and hotel stays.
He also claimed reward flights which were sold to his customers.
Delhi police said the con was worth ‘millions of pounds.’
"Even if a false executive club account was created, a genuine passenger could redeem his points. This means that the genuine customers were not at loss but the loss was of British Airways as it led to duplicate use of points," said Yadav.
When his work office was raided by police they discovered 28 passports and several American Express credit cards.
British Airways is assisting the police in the investigation.
"We would like to reassure customers that none of our systems have been illegally accessed and no Executive Club members have had their data accessed or frequent flyer points stolen," a BA statement said.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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