Many posts wonder if his "aunt" is really his aunt. So far as I know, you can use your miles to buy tickets for anyone, relative or not, so long as you don't receive compensation. Many people hear have used miles for others who are not relatives and never had a problem. Lack of compensation may be more likely for a relative, but if the relative paid anything you're still in violation.

Advertising on CL violates the rules. Cancelling the ticket seems the easiest way for AA to get the miles back, however innocent the aunt ticket may have been.

Whether AA will show some mercy due to never actually selling on CL (even though the ad is a violation) is not clear to me (unlikely if there are other undisclosed issues). JonNYC, any insight on this (assuming no other issues)?