Originally Posted by
knick1959
What is a "first-time mileage bonus"? I checked, briefly, and I didn't see this term or anything close to it in any Citi docs. Anyone else? Maybe I missed it.
This is an interesting point. In
AA's response to the 2020 DOT complaint (also linked in the Wiki), AA asserts that these were "New Account Mileage Bonsues" :
Further to their partnership, Citi and American occasionally promote offers wherein AAdvantage members can earn bonus miles after opening a new Citi Card account and reaching a minimum spend threshold (“New Account Mileage Bonuses”).6 Promotional offers for New Account Mileage Bonuses ordinarily are available only to new Citi Card account holders. The promotional terms currently provide that such account holders can earn a New Account Mileage Bonus so long as they have not received one in the previous 48 months.
American and Citi promote the New Account Mileage Bonuses through a variety of marketing channels, including on each of their websites, via emails and through targeted mailing campaigns. To this end, American and Citi work together to identify AAdvantage members who do not have a particular Citi Card. When such AAdvantage members are identified, mailers or emails may be generated and sent to the street or email address associated with the AAdvantage account, inviting the member to apply for a Citi Card. Such invitations contain a unique invitation code that the member will use when applying for the Citi Card, to tie the application (and New Account Mileage Bonus) to the intended recipient of the invitation. Although members may open multiple Citi Card accounts, the offer terms specify that an individual may only earn one New Account Mileage Bonus in a 48-month period.5
I note that while AA states here that the "current" limitation is 48-months, later in the complaint it states that in 2018 the bonus limitation was 24 months, until such time (no date specified) that it changed to 48 months. It provides a screenshot of the online application in which the T&Cs include a section called "Card Offer" that states "
American Airlines bonus miles are not available if you have had any Citi AAdvantage Card (other than a CitiBusiness/ AAdvantage Card) opened or closed in the last 24 months." It also provides another sample online application dated 6/29/2020 that states in larger type than the earlier applications: "This offer is valid for new accounts only." It is not clear from that screen whether "new accounts" refers to someone who has never had a Citi card before versus someone who has never had the specifc type of card that is subject of the application.
I'm not in a position to judge whether the screenshots accurately reflect the online application in 2019 and 2020. And indeed, as someone (
OssianBlue?) noted upthread, there is a bit of sloppiness/sleight-of-hand with the references to the screenshots, in which it is not entirely clear whether AA is asserting that the 24-or 48-month limit was in effect at the time of the complainant's application. But what I'm very curious about is what was said on the infamous physical mailers that seem central to this issue.
Did the mailers describe this as a "new account" bonus?
It's not impossible that Citi and AA intended this to be a "new account" bonus but failed to communicate that limitation effectively. On the other hand, the folks who were created new AA accounts (for family, friends and pets) in order to generate additional mailers were, by definition, aware at some level that the bonuses were being targeted to individuals with "new" accounts, be they new AAdvantage accounts or new Citi accounts. The wiki in this
2018 FT thread makes clear that at least the members of the FT community actively following this issue understood that some version of the 24-month limitation applied to all card offers at the time, and that the physical mailers were a "workaround" to this limitation. Of course, not everyone who filled out a mailer was necessarily an avid devotee of FlyerTalk.
(Still hoping that someone has an actual mailer that they can post, for those of us who were not there at the time . . . )