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Account audit / blocked / fraud: award / miles / SWU / sale, barter, etc.

Old Jul 29, 2014, 10:15 am
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Last edit by: Prospero
This thread is dedicated to issues around American Airlines Corporate Security, AAdvantage Fraud division (AKA "Revenue Protection Unit"), and its enforcement of the AAdvantage Terms and Conditions - particularly to selling, buying and bartering awards, miles, upgrades and other instruments - and related issues.

It is okay at this time to gift awards, upgrades, etc. as long as there is absolutely no quid pro quo (no buying or selling or offer to do so, no barter or trade "you give me one now I'll give it back" or anything smacking of prohibited activity. AA is probably the strictest of the US airlines about this. They have a very active and expert AAdvantage Fraud division of the AA Corporate Fraud department, and they can both be aggressive and, some might say merciless - clawing back one's miles and instruments, even closing one's account and terminating status and ability to participate in the AAdvantage program n the future.

There are other ways to commit fraud in AA’s eyes, such as fictitious or fraudulent bookings to try to block seats to increase one’s chances if upgrades, generating tickets to access airside facilities (e.g. lounges) when there is no intent to fly, etc.

To read an example of how the US Department of Transportation has rules on punitive actions by AA, read Joel Hayes vs. American Airlines here (PDF).

Please read on for information and the consensus of knowledgeable members.

E.g. AAdvantage Terms and Conditions excerpt: "At no time may AAdvantage mileage credit or award tickets be purchased, sold, advertised for sale or bartered (including but not limited to transferring, gifting, or promising mileage credit or award tickets in exchange for support of a certain business, product or charity and/or participation in an auction, sweepstakes, raffle or contest). Any such mileage or tickets are void if transferred for cash or other consideration. Violators (including any passenger who uses a purchased or bartered award ticket) may be liable for damages and litigation costs, including American Airlines attorneys’ fees incurred in enforcing this rule." (This extends to other AA instruments such as Systemwide Upgrades, etc., selling of extra AirPass seats or baggage allowance, etc.)
Also see AAdvantage Program Terms and Conditions and

American Airlines Conditions of Carriage.

Originally Posted by SS255
<snip>"While you may consider the AAdvantage Miles in your account to be *your* property, they are actually the property of AA, and AA permits you to redeem them within the program rules set by AA. If AA detects any impropriety (real or perceived) in the use of AAdvantage miles, they reserve the right to confiscate the miles and/or close/delete the account."...
The typical email from AA Corporate Security can not be addressed by calling AAdvantage Customer Service or other methods - you must reply to the email address given. It likely will look like this:

My name is Fname Lname, and I am an analyst with American Airlines. One of my responsibilities is investigating possible instances of fraud, misrepresentation, and violations of the General AAdvantage Program Conditions. Today, I’m writing you about your AAdvantage account # XXXXXXXX

We have reason to believe that the transactions listed below violate one or more of the AAdvantage program conditions. This includes, but is not limited to, prohibition of purchase, sale, or barter of mileage credit and or award tickets. As a result, American Airlines has suspended your AAdvantage membership privileges and use of AA.com® in conjunction with your account – and may terminate your account as a result of our findings. We are in the process of completing the investigation into this matter, and I would like to hear the events as they occurred from your perspective. Please respond to this message by <date> with complete and accurate information regarding the activities listed below:

<specific activity /activities in question>

Required Information:·
  • Passenger name·
    • Origin and destination cities on the travel itinerary·
      • Purchaser name (individual, company and/or website), including:·
        • Copy of any advertisements to which you responded offering to purchase/broker the use of your AAdvantage miles·
          • Purchaser contact information, such as:·
            • Mailing address·
              • Email address·
                • Telephone number·
                  • Website profile name·
                    • Your statement fully disclosing the details surrounding the sale/barter transaction referenced above·
                      • Copy of all communication between yourself and the purchaser·
                        • Documentation that you received payment


To protect and retain the integrity of the AAdvantage program, it is vital that firm action be taken as a result of any violation of the AAdvantage Program Conditions, whether intentional or not. Failure to respond completely and accurately by <insert date>, will result in the termination of your AAdvantage membership and all its benefits, including all remaining AAdvantage miles in your account and any award tickets issued from it. Please, understand that our overall motivation is to preserve the benefits of the AAdvantage program, rather than to take punitive action against individuals. To that end, it’s not unusual for us to release the AAdvantage account suspension once we receive all the detail we request and reconcile it with the results of our investigation. We hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,

Fname Lname, etc.
Excellent summaries of information (based on the sum of experiences we have seen in this thread over time) of how to respond:

Blogger Gary Leff: "If you made that mistake and got caught, American usually will go light on first-time offenders provided that they ‘come clean’ and are forthcoming about whom a systemwide was sold to or purchased from and what the terms were. They are most interested in serial brokers and are willing to ‘plea bargain’ with minor offenders to get the Evip-lords. There may be a consequence but it should fall short of account shutdown and forfeiture of miles." Link
Originally Posted by sbrower
I am going to try and provide a summary of the advice. For the record, this is 90% from Jon (JonNYC) and a little bit from other comments and circumstances, I am just trying to provide an easy summary, without all the explanations and reasons. I am happy to have others update/correct.

1. Respond to the questions in the email which you received. Don't try to call or email that person, or anyone else, at AA or DOT or whatever. Just answer the email.

2. Answer every question, in detail, with the facts. Don't use sarcasm or "you should know" or anything else that sounds like to you are avoiding the exact question being asked.

3. Assume that they know more about the true facts than you do. It might not always be true, but in most cases they have way more information than you might assume. So go back to #2, above.

4. If you did ANYTHING that was wrong (not under your interpretation of what you think the rules should be, but based on what the rules actually say) then, if you want to continue to participate in the AAdvantage program, tell them about your error and tell them that you are prepared to pay a correct penalty for your mistake (miles/status/etc) and then go back to #2, above.
From JonNYC, our resident expert on this:

Originally Posted by JonNYC
Perfect and 100%.
<snip>

The analysts that do this for a living have the same reactions that any humans do to being lied to and/or condescended to. Therefore, as well as being 100% truthful, go out of your way NOT to be:

-condescending
-brusque
-sharp, terse and/or sounding like you're being inconvenienced
-insulting
-just generally slippery, aloof, evasive and unforthcoming. As mentioned; they know more than you think they do. Always.

DO be apologetic, contrite and extremely cooperative.

Finally, any version of "...in which case, I'll be emailing [insert name or department here] to tell them how I, a [insert years flying AA, status, MMer, $$ spent, etc] customer is being treated" and/or mention of your lawyer, DOT, Chris Elliot (), this forum, any blogger, etc. DO NOT DO THIS.
Older posts have been archived to the
archived thread.

A number of posts regarding AA's confiscation of 60,000 miles from "Mr. Hayes" for allegedly making "fictitious" bookings in search of whether his upgrade would be likely to progress or not, AA IT issues that might have led to this (or not), AA's replies and the USDOT complaint have been moved to a new thread: Hayes, USDOT and AA: "fictitious bookings" and checking upgrades.

NOTE: Posts about members experiencing account security breaches, fraud, theft of awards and instruments have moved to Account fraud / breach: my account compromised, awards stolen, etc..

Print Wikipost

Account audit / blocked / fraud: award / miles / SWU / sale, barter, etc.

Old Dec 26, 2018, 1:16 pm
  #751  
 
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Aspen, CO
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If anyone's interested, here is my verdict:

Dear Mr. Troian,



We’ve completed our accounting of your violations: 375,000 miles and 23 Systemwide Upgrades sold. After reviewing your case with management, we have determined to release the suspension of your AAdvantage account, with the following conditions:

1. You agree to abide by all General AAdvantage Program Conditions, which includes the Systemwide upgrade Terms and Conditions.

2. You understand that any future violation of the General AAdvantage Program Conditions will result in the immediate termination of your AAdvantage membership benefits, including all miles and unused award tickets.



We have assessed a reduced penalty of 237,500 miles and 9 Systemwide Upgrades due to the considerable losses experienced by American Airlines due to the large volume of violations. We hope to have your future cooperation.



Regards,
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Old Dec 26, 2018, 1:38 pm
  #752  
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I think AA was more than generous. I can only say wow to selling that many miles and SWUs.
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Old Dec 26, 2018, 1:43 pm
  #753  
 
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Originally Posted by newyorkgeorge
I think AA was more than generous. I can only say wow to selling that many miles and SWUs.
agreed - I was fully expecting the closure of my account! very curious as to why they were so lenient...
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Old Dec 26, 2018, 3:10 pm
  #754  
 
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Originally Posted by Gino Troian
agreed - I was fully expecting the closure of my account! very curious as to why they were so lenient...
While we may all appreciate the data point, why why why why why why why why why why why why why are you even talking about specifics here ?
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Old Dec 26, 2018, 3:29 pm
  #755  
 
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Originally Posted by Gino Troian
If anyone's interested, here is my verdict:
Thanks for the info. Also surprised AA didn't close the account. The # of miles doesn't strike me as remarkable, but that's a lot of SWU's.
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Old Dec 26, 2018, 4:06 pm
  #756  
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Originally Posted by Gino Troian
agreed - I was fully expecting the closure of my account! very curious as to why they were so lenient...
Hmmmm, me too.

Originally Posted by ctbarron


Thanks for the info. Also surprised AA didn't close the account. The # of miles doesn't strike me as remarkable, but that's a lot of SWU's.
Strikes me as "got pretty lucky" as well. This was a very egregious set of infractions.

Of course following this advice:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30303486-post1149.html
may have been the difference here. Have to also wonder if any of the purchasers of those many sold SWUs got ensnared (and therefore, penalized-- making up the remainder of the penalty, as it were, to a degree) here as well
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Last edited by JonNYC; Dec 26, 2018 at 4:18 pm
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Old Dec 26, 2018, 4:07 pm
  #757  
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Originally Posted by Gino Troian
If anyone's interested, here is my verdict:

Dear Mr. Troian,

We’ve completed our accounting of your violations: 375,000 miles and 23 Systemwide Upgrades sold. After reviewing your case with management, we have determined to release the suspension of your AAdvantage account, with the following conditions:

1. You agree to abide by all General AAdvantage Program Conditions, which includes the Systemwide upgrade Terms and Conditions.

2. You understand that any future violation of the General AAdvantage Program Conditions will result in the immediate termination of your AAdvantage membership benefits, including all miles and unused award tickets.

We have assessed a reduced penalty of 237,500 miles and 9 Systemwide Upgrades due to the considerable losses experienced by American Airlines due to the large volume of violations. We hope to have your future cooperation.

Regards,
Thanks for the update.

In my opinion, you received leniency.

Originally Posted by george 3
While we may all appreciate the data point, why why why why why why why why why why why why why are you even talking about specifics here ?
The horse left the barn a long time ago. Why not?
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Old Dec 26, 2018, 4:34 pm
  #758  
 
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Originally Posted by JonNYC
Hmmmm, me too.

Strikes me as "got pretty lucky" as well. This was a very egregious set of infractions.

Of course following this advice:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30303486-post1149.html
may have been the difference here. Have to also wonder if any of the purchasers of those many sold SWUs got ensnared (and therefore, penalized-- making up the remainder of the penalty, as it were, to a degree) here as well
my guess woud be my full cooperation with corporate security and the stuff you mentioned in the above post... and yes re: lots of people getting caught up, some who are regulars on FT. penalties ranged from 10K miles to 200K+ based on the amount of miles/upgrades purchased and their level of cooperation. those who admitted the purchase got their accounts unlocked within 24 hours + a small penalty and those who fought back and denied the accusations had their accounts locked for up to a month and had to pay much more fwiw.
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Old Dec 26, 2018, 4:40 pm
  #759  
 
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Originally Posted by Gino Troian
my guess woud be my full cooperation with corporate security and the stuff you mentioned in the above post... and yes re: lots of people getting caught up, some who are regulars on FT. penalties ranged from 10K miles to 200K+ based on the amount of miles/upgrades purchased and their level of cooperation. those who admitted the purchase got their accounts unlocked within 24 hours + a small penalty and those who fought back and denied the accusations had their accounts locked for up to a month and had to pay much more fwiw.
Does the eagle rating/corporate account(if any) matter in these decisions? I'm assuming someone with 23 SWU's would be a high value customer and its a win-win if they cooperate and promise not to do it again.
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Old Dec 26, 2018, 4:42 pm
  #760  
 
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Originally Posted by george 3
While we may all appreciate the data point, why why why why why why why why why why why why why are you even talking about specifics here ?
At this point, why not? AA issued its ruling.
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Old Dec 26, 2018, 4:45 pm
  #761  
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Originally Posted by Global321
At this point, why not? AA issued its ruling.
and hopefully the harsh reality of the penalty serves as a deterrent to the next guy.

simply not worth it.
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Old Dec 26, 2018, 4:49 pm
  #762  
 
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Originally Posted by Antarius
and hopefully the harsh reality of the penalty serves as a deterrent to the next guy.

simply not worth it.
Absolutely.

And no offense to Gino, who has been very forthcoming here, as a person that plays by the rules, I wish they would have taken all the miles and certs.
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Old Dec 26, 2018, 5:04 pm
  #763  
 
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Originally Posted by Acid
Does the eagle rating/corporate account(if any) matter in these decisions? I'm assuming someone with 23 SWU's would be a high value customer and its a win-win if they cooperate and promise not to do it again.
no corporate account, however, I did fly and spend a lot with AA - even had a special agreement to get an unlimited number of extra SWU's post 200K which was definitely not the norm from what I've seen on the forums (which thinking about it now, I feel very sorry as I abused the hell out of this) so I'm guessing 4 eagles?

Originally Posted by Global321
Absolutely.

And no offense to Gino, who has been very forthcoming here, as a person that plays by the rules, I wish they would have taken all the miles and certs.
I have a grand total of 333 RDM's and no SWU's left they pretty much zeroed our my account
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Old Dec 26, 2018, 7:42 pm
  #764  
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Originally Posted by Gino Troian
no corporate account, however, I did fly and spend a lot with AA - even had a special agreement to get an unlimited number of extra SWU's post 200K which was definitely not the norm from what I've seen on the forums (which thinking about it now, I feel very sorry as I abused the hell out of this) so I'm guessing 4 eagles?



I have a grand total of 333 RDM's and no SWU's left they pretty much zeroed our my account
But your AA status wasn't revoked, including for the next program year?
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Old Dec 26, 2018, 8:33 pm
  #765  
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
But your AA status wasn't revoked, including for the next program year?
According to a quote of his initial post in this thread, as of early October, Gino Troian had "EQM 480K this year alone - 75+ segments all in the highest possible cabin." I guess that he must be too valuable a customer to lose.
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