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Last week, we reported that a man was sitting in a Florida jail awaiting trial for stealing American Airlines miles worth “more than $260,000,” which he allegedly redeemed for hotels and rental cars. Knowing how easy it can be to rack up points and miles, it can be tempting to break the rules of frequent flyer programs, but breaking the law is a different matter entirely. So just like stealing someone else’s miles is flat-out illegal, stealing travel certificates from an airline itself is just as much of a crime.
Not only did Cunningham commit a crime by stealing these PIN codes, using them for himself or selling them, but he also threatened United Airlines. In September 2012, he contacted the carrier under an alias, claiming he “found a massive hole in the United.com website.” He was willing to share with United what the hole was — if United gave him $10,000 and first-class tickets to any destination in the world for him and his family. United claims that the hacking by Cunningham cost it $58,123.
There’s now a warrant for Cunningham’s arrest with bail set at $50,000. This all happened before United’s ‘bug bounty’ program. The program, which was introduced in 2015, rewards those who spot flaws or bugs in United’s website with miles — there’s a maximum payout of 1,000,000 miles for high-severity fixes. With new programs like this, United’s hoping no one else is able to hack its system like Cunningham was able to do in 2012.
Source: thepointsguy.com