A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: MCI
Programs: AA Gold 1MM, AS MVP, UA Silver, WN A-List, Marriott LT Titanium, HH Diamond
Posts: 53,010
The home-sales one is easy to understand: you've essentially purchased AA miles through some sort of middle man. (A mortgage broker or whatever.) The broker is going to invest your payment for the miles as long as he can, and then manually purchase the miles from AA. It's not a system problem - it's a human process.