papayasalad

In a nutshell, AA took away 500,000 miles from my account in April 2017 and sent me an email as notice. In the email, AA claimed "It has come to our attention that your AAdvantage account # XXXXXXX has been involved in the attempted online sale or barter of AAdvantage mileage", and provided a broken link as evidence. I expressed a strong disappoint and ask for more explanations as the provided evidence was unavailable and I had never attempted any online sale of AA mileage. However, AA insisted that the decision was based on the AAdvantage Terms and Conditions, and refused any further communications. In addition, AA also implied that they would close my account (about 100,000 miles remaining) if I didn't let it go.

I gave up on it after several back-and-forths with AA. Since I was deeply engaged in the preparation for my interviews at that time, and later occupied with relocation from coast to coast, getting familiar with my new job, and getting a new place, this farce quickly got de-prioritized. However, when I received a promotion email from AA this morning, the memory of the mistreatments all came back and I feel like I should not let it slide easily.

To be honest, it does not make a big difference to me whether AA gives back my mileage or not, since it is now extremely hard to use any AA miles to accommodate my family's travel needs after we relocated to the new place, and AA mileage is now basically worthless to me. I am bringing it up purely to provide a data point and make some noise in the community. Honestly speaking, I am not a targeted customer to AA. I barely took AA flights, and most of my AA mileages were from US Airways and credit card spend. I burned a large number of AA miles for my family back when the sweet spot of 110k business class round trip between U.S. and Asia still existed. My guess is AA trying to expel the non-targeted customers like myself by taking away miles using some absurd made-up reasons, which has two benefits - 1) to make up for the losses from historical award ticket redemptions, and 2) to expel non-targeted customers from future "misuse" of their AA miles.

In sum, I would like to bring some awareness to the community of what had happened, and also welcome data points of similar experiences and all kinds of comments and suggestions.

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Attachment: original email from AAdvantage Corporate Security

Dear XXXXX,

As an analyst with American Airlines, one of my responsibilities is investigating violations of the General AAdvantageŽ Program Conditions. It has come to our attention that your AAdvantage account # XXXXXXX has been involved in the attempted online sale or barter of AAdvantage mileage.

American Airlines appreciates all of our customers, but we cannot tolerate the sale or barter of AAdvantage mileage. When earned AAdvantage miles are used in this way, the integrity of the program is damaged. This is why our General AAdvantageŽ Program Conditions clearly state: “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.”

As a result of our findings, your AAdvantage account has been assessed a penalty of the amount offered for sale or barter (500,0000 AAdvantage miles) for violating AAdvantage program rules. Please understand that any future violations of the AAdvantage Program Conditions, without exception, will force us to terminate your AAdvantage account. This action will cause any previously accumulated mileage and accrued benefits to be forfeited, and you will be ineligible to participate in the AAdvantage program in the future.

We value your business and years of loyalty to American Airlines. We would like nothing more than to continue to reward you for your business and loyalty for many years to come. However, in return, we must insist that you adhere to the guidelines of our program. We trust you will agree that participating in the AAdvantage program is worth it.

Regards,

A. H.

Analyst

American Airlines
PO Box 619616
Mail Drop 5555
DFW Airport, Texas 75261-9616

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