ContinentalFan

I'd say that the chances are zero.

edlin303

I doubt they would get our real info from Randy, but many of us don't make it hard to figure out who we are (posting trip reports, itins, etc). Yes, CC could be as much of a risk as anywhere else if you are "bartering" instead of just giving things away. In particular, if you were to trade with someone who trades often, that is probably a red flag (as I mentioned above). That is why many of us won't push our luck with accounts we care about. I usually try to gift AA stuff to friends and family when I can because I love my AA status too much.

tom911

I can think of two cases I've seen on FT the last few years, though don't think they were AA. In the first, a person checked in at the counter and told the agent he got a "great deal" on his ticket. The agent asked some questions and found out he had purchased an award ticket.

In the second case, a person gave an award ticket to a coworker's sister to go to Australia for a wedding. When she arrived at the airport she was asked some questions about the source of the award ticket, and she did not have any information on the account holder the miles came from. She had to purchase a new ticket to make it to the wedding.

tom911

If she was stranded in the middle of her trip, were you prepared to buy her a ticket home?

ORDinaryPax

Also, if you made the booking, shouldn't you know if she was overseas?

tom911

Did you learn this in internal documents when your law firm represented AA, or some other source? I can't recall ever seeing this mentioned on the AA forum and I'm curious where the information comes from.

martin33

isn't that just common sense? what counterfeiter works in ones instead of twenties or hundreds?

GUWonder

Given award ticket date changes can be done by the ticketed passenger contacting AA directly and that the ticket may have originated outside of the US for travel to or beyond the US, the OP might not necessarily know unless the OP were checking up on the PNR like some award ticket brokers might do.

dayone

Many myths have some basis in common sense.

Zeffer

Yeahhh, something about this whole thing just doesn't smell right. The passenger "completed her flight and there were no issues"? So how did AA find out? I dunno what's up, but there's something we don't know about this story. It just doesn't pass my finely-tuned B.S.-sniffing meter...

On a related note, I've occasionally stumbled across eBay pages selling SWUs that claim merely to be selling "travel advice" or "an empty envelope"(!) while "giving away" a "free" SWU, so as to evade the obvious breach of T&C. Does anyone know whether that dodge cuts the mustard, or has someone been punished for it? (For the record, I've never done this & never would -- my friends & I use always use up all my eVIPs anyway -- but I'm just curious whenever I see those ads! Any info on that??)

FWAAA

If you stood on a corner and sold an empty baggie for $$$ and threw in a few ounces of good weed for free, would the authorities be stymied or would you do time for dealing?

Give AA a little credit . . .

No, empty white envelopes or expensive travel advice don't sanitize the sale of miles or certs.

oldpenny16

Yesterday I went on AA.com to book tickets for a family member and me to travel first class.

AA has checked with me twice to make sure I was the one making the booking and using the miles. Me, the real me.

I certainly don't mind, but this has not happened in the past.

I don't mind the security on my AA miles.

LTRS

Which is exactly why I would never use my FF miles for a buisness trip, then try to get my client to pay the "value" of them based on current fares. It just looks kind of unethical.

In fact when they were running that deal where you could fly X number of flights between X date and X date, and get 30% of on your next trip I signed up for it because I knew I would fly the dates. But I couldn't take a vacation in the time alloted to use the 30% off. So I ended up using it on my most expensive flight planned prior to the deadline, and just said "hey you're the lucky client" to the client I used it for.

I don't think I would have known the AA T&C said I couldn't sell a ticket obtained with FF miles if I didn't read here. Confession: I don't always read every T&C for every "loyalty" program I sign up with, nor for that matter every software program I install, or internet forum I join. There is so much damn legalese in them among the nuggests of real info.

BUT my common sense would have kicked in. I know AA sells miles, so it would stand to reason I wouldn't be allowed to compete with them and sell them myself. So I would have checked the T&C prior to doing what the OP did.

In any case, I'm witht the person that advised a lawyer. If the OP really thinks they can go back and charge him for the $10K value of the ticket, I would have a lawyer on the phone to advise me before admitting anything.

Eujeanie

I'm going with the conspiracy theory.

Too many things about the OP's first post were just so strange, both the things that were pointed out and others I just have a "feel" for. The whole thing was just written in such a way that it didn't seem to come from someone who was boiling over with angst at their predicament and falling on the mercy of the board for advice, but really almost crafted as a set up.

Especially now since OldPenny mentioned how he was questioned recently when booking first class FF tickets, I think AA is ramping up their strategies to catch thieves, and why wouldn't setting a trap on the most well-known board be one of them?

tom911

Are you referring to the e-mails they send out confirming you made an award transaction, or are they actually calling you by phone to confirm?