Originally Posted by HLCinCOU

Yeah, that happens regularly, has been reported in this very thread several times, and has happened to me (outbound DFW-HKG credited by distance, return credited by fare). But "credited by distance" is not the same as "credited as a special fare." The "credited by distance" category includes special fares, but also includes instances where AA's system just somehow lost the fare basis. This usually means something caused reticketing; I've had it happen because of IRROPs (most times), SDFC (rarely) and after applying SWUs (rarely); there may be other things that trigger it. If you look at your activity on AA's website you can tell the difference: if it says "Method: distance - data unavailable" they just lost the fare; if it was actually credited as a special fare it would say "Method: distance - special fare" instead.

The complexity of that situation makes it harder to interpret the data points. Most reports of this sort of thing just aren't precise enough to provide certainty about what really happened. People aren't looking at the fare rules and aren't paying close attention to how flights were credited. But I still haven't seen any cases where someone a)looked at the fare rules and validated the ticket was bulk and b)saw the flight get credited by fare instead of distance. I maintain skepticism that such things actually happen.