Those of you who got one of tthese emails, did you do the searching/shopping on aa.com while logged in or not?

If not checking to see what elite-bookable seats are available, I usually do my searches while not logged in. I only log in if I'm serious enough about the particular flights to check whether, say, exit row seats are available. But not if all I'm looking for is fares, or what routings exist, or researching a trip with no specific date in mind yet.

I've noticed that if I'm logged in, aa.com fills in my departure airport as my home airport (LAX). If I'm not loggged in, aa.com fills in my departure airport as the airport they think I'm closest to right now (presumably because they can tell roughly where I'm logged in from, the same way FT can to know to throw up annoying banner ads in languages I can't speak when I'm traveling internationally).

(This is very obvious to me, since I live nearer to one airport AA flies to, LAX, but work nearer another airport AA flies to, SNA. If I'm connected from home, I get LAX filled in, logged in or not. But if I'm connected from work, I get SNA filled in if not logged in. And similarly I get other airports filled in if I'm connected while on a trip.)

But that implies aa.com doesn't know who I am if I'm not logged in. (As opposed to TripAdvisor, which seems to use cookies rather than login, and does know who I am even if I don't log in.)