An important update for Privilege Club members
Privacy and data protection are extremely important to Qatar Airways. The following Frequent Asked Questions (FAQ’s) are to keep you informed on the recent security issue at SITA Passenger Service System (US) Inc. (SITA) that involved personal data of some Qatar Airways Privilege Club members.
To know more about the security incident, please visit SITA’s website here.
SITA Passenger Service System (US) Inc. (SITA) has informed Qatar Airways and other airlines that it was the victim of a cyber-attack, leading to a data security incident involving certain passenger data that was stored on SITA’s servers.
SITA Passenger Service System (US) Inc. is an IT service provider that operates passenger processing systems for airlines around the globe.
Qatar Airways is not using SITA’s systems connected to this security issue.
The exposed personal data related to some Qatar Airways Privilege Club members was names, membership numbers, Privilege Club tiers and, for some members, seat and meal preferences.
Our Qatar Airways Privilege Club Team have informed all Privilege Club members of the security issue at SITA. However the personal data of only a limited number of Privilege Club members has been exposed.
SITA has confirmed that no password data has been impacted. As a precautionary measure, however, Qatar Airways advises all Privilege Club members to regularly change their password and would recommend doing that now using this link. Otherwise, no further action is required from you at this time.
We recommend that Privilege Club members change their password regularly using this link.
All official communications from the Qatar Airways are always sent from @qatarairways.com.qa or @avios.com or @qr.avios.com domains. When clicking on a link in an email, please verify that your browser has opened a genuine qatarairways.com or qatarairways.com/privilegeclub or qatardutyfree.com.qa website address.
This incident was not a breach of Qatar Airways’ systems. We are committed to ensuring that your personal data is secure. Qatar Airways has and will continue to take physical, technical, and administrative measures to safeguard the confidentiality and security of our customers’ personal data. If you would like to know more about how Qatar Airways Group processes personal data, please refer to our Privacy Notice.
SITA has confirmed to have taken immediate action to contact all affected airlines and related organisations, including Qatar Airways. In addition, SITA has confirmed that the incident has been contained and has since been under continued investigation. To know more about this issue, please visit SITA’s website here.
Qatar Airways will keep its Privilege Club members informed of relevant updates. In addition, these FAQ’s will be updated when required.
Last update: 11 March 2021
