Originally Posted by
joe_miami
“At least one,” after two months and countless thousands of comments here, Reddit, etc., sounds like it was a mistake by AA, not evidence of AA swinging the ax indiscriminately.
As previously noted:
1. It happened because AA "assumed" that
anyone who had 3+ sign-up bonuses in 2 years for the very same Citi card had to be using mailers, and because AA "assumed" that at least one of those mailers
had to be "abused" (name changed, fake account signup, etc).
2. AA made the mistake because it's very rare (but certainly possible in certain timing situations) for someone to get mailers
directly addressed to them shortly after doing a public app for the very same card. That's happened to me twice (at other banks with other airline's card), I applied for a pubic link (or a previous invitation) and then I recieved another invitation to apply in the mail shortly afterwards. (Once with BofA for an Alaska card, once with Amex for a Delta card.) That's because banks typically "schedule" mailers months ahead of when you actually receive them, so if you happen to apply in the meantime, you can get a mailer after applying and being approved. AA presumably didn't consider this is a possibility (given how rare it is) and just "assumed" that if someone used mailers to get to 3 SUBs in 2 years for the same card, they must have "misused" mailers somehow.
3. AA "amplified" its mistake by refusing to explain to people
why they were terminating them, and thus making it very difficult to "plead your case" in case AA had terminated you despite you not meeting their criteria for terminating you.