FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Does AA know who we are based on our posts?
Old Jun 20, 2016 | 10:34 am
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JDiver
Moderator: American AAdvantage
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Originally Posted by carlosdca
I am going to guess here.


AA may care about a post involving something fraudulent that they could not figure out on their own. Double bookings, phantom bookings, etc, can probably be tracked better with their own systems than looking at flyer talk. Some post that may raise a red flag (re: fraudulent intention) may raise a flag, otherwise....nah.

As far the usual FT whining about bad FAs, horrible A319s, upgrade shenanigans, LAX-JNB new route speculation, etc, I want to bet they couldn't care less.
Así es.

AA doesn't much care about or for FlyerTalk as a whole or the AA | A forum, coming from the very top. We are mostly perceived as whiners and chiselers, to the best of my knowledge, people who aren't worth much to AA but continually try to milk the airline for what we can gain. (There's a touch of truth residing in every stereotype - that's what makes stereotyping so resistant to demythologizing.) And it has been heard from reliable sources Mr. Parker himself has commented negatively on some of the negative depictions and characterizations that have been used against him in this forum.

It's all too bad, because at one time AA had a social media lurker here, and AFAIK some AA people were actually contemplating involvement with FlyerTalk - that idea was quickly nipped in the bud by those in the executive suites.

I do believe AA has as skewed a view of FT as some may have of Mr. Parker, and I believe there was a chance at some mutually beneficial relationship that possibly would have offered us informational clarity and detail, as well as a platform for some aspects of feedback to AA. As things exist currently, we'll never know.

AA does have other internet venues and channels they consider more productive and useful; they do not include FlyerTalk, even if other service providers maintain an active presence on FT.

However, AA Corporate Security - AAdvantage Fraud does maintain some awareness of FT and do look for obvious and flagrant violations of AAdvantage Terms and Conditions or Cinditions of Carriage. Their vigilance has resulted in several FT members being held accountable for selling or trading various instruments (e.g. selling awards or selling miles to brokers). They're quite capable at putting 2+2 together, gathering data from various sources including aa.com accounts, transactions and information shared in various internet venues (including eBay, Craig's List and even FlyerTalk.

I'm assuming they may use sophisticated spider technology to alert them of certain words or phrases and uses in various internet venues, and occasionally browse here with personnel who are signed up members with sufficient anonymous and innocuous posts to access The Coupon Connection (now closed to all AA transactions), to see if a particular individual who has been brought to Corp Sec's attention has posted here, etc.

Last edited by JDiver; Jun 20, 2016 at 11:11 am
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