mosquito

Antarius

already been flagged and removed.

Haha

g1ant

Well here's the start of what was offered for sale:

American Airlines -- VIP System-Wide Upgrades-

Only TWO (2) Upgrades left. ONE FOR $650 AND TWO FOR $1200. Travel must be completed by February 28, 2013

You are buying one American Airlines VIP System-wide Upgrade for $650 for one or two (2) for $1200 to be used on American Airlines Flights for Domestic (Includes Puerto Rico & Hawaii) and International Travel

What a bargain!!

mikelat

Wow, only $650 each. What a deal! Gotta wonder how many of these are successfully completed and then have a nasty surprise for the travellers on day of travel. They probably never had a real e-mail address for seller or any contact info. So they're out the $1200 cash with no recourse. sucks for them.

JDiver

Actually with eVIP/ SWUs (as they are called these days), the "buyer" must give the "seller" his information so the SWUs can be attached to an itinerary.

Several denouements possible: 1) OK, I got the upgrades for you (not so likely); 2) OK, you are waitlisted, you will have no problem (and if they do not go through you are out $650 -$1300); 3) one or both parties get busted by AAdvantage Fraud; 4) the person gets your money and id, you find out some other unpleasantness has occurred as well as getting ripped off (maybe they are smart enough to use the info to gain control over your account and all you get is a big sucking sound).

Read upthread to see how it works when Fraud gets involved.

mvoight

Darn, no longer there
I suspect the pricing was due to the expiration date being 4 weeks away

iridge

You mean them expiring in 4 weeks makes them more valuable?

In general SWU is not usually valued at $650 a pop.

milkchug

Interesting how people try to spin the fact that expiring SWU=higher value.

mvoight

I don't know what the normal value is. I don't buy or sell them.
I had assume the price would go down this close to expiration.

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

So you were assuming $650 was a bargain?

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

The SWUs expire in 30 days. Any request today would probably be wait listed. From my own experience, SWUs expiring after 2/28 can only be used for travel after that date if availability exists, the SWU is from an account holder that requalified for EXP status, and only for travel for that EXP and any traveling companions. Sounds like whoever would take this deal is going to be out $650 at best and possibly at worst met by someone from Security from AA.

There is a sucker born every minute.

RogerD408

Actually SWUs can be "gifted" to anyone and does not need to be a traveling companion. There have been times just booking the trip before they expire has worked, it all depends upon how the agent views your account and their ability to bend the rules.

Selling or bartering your SWUs is disallowed by the T&Cs and getting caught can have severe consequences. The nastiest being denied return travel on original tickets. If they do it on the outbound, at least you should be able to go home and be out the trip, but if you've already flown out you gotta get back and walkup fares are not cheap.

alhcfp

The consensus has been that if an exception is made it is only made for EXP travelling who has requalified for next year.

Gifting to someone before expiry to be used after expiry will not be honored.

There is another thread if EXPs are being given leniency this year.

Ouchithurts

1. It was wrong.
2. I knew it was wrong when I did it.
3. I took the penalty, I did not whine.
4. I wanted to lay out the process here, so others can learn from the event. We cannot all possibly live long enough to do all the stupid things, we must rely on others to do some of them.

Over the past 3-5 months, I sold blocks of miles via some web site. Got few thousand dollars over the time period. Most often tickets were on some partner (CX usually) and for business class or first class seats.

The 'people' contact you via email, give you the persons name and record locator. You call in and have it ticketed from your account. Fee's plus the agreed rate is sent via paypal or similar the next morning.

Until...
an email from Aadvantage audits, or fraud or something comes in, which simultaneously locks out your advantage account. The email is cordial, but direct. We know what you are doing, relate all details to us in writing.

uh oh

This sent me to these hallowed forums, where (after sifting through the sawdust) the wisdom expressed by those thought wise, was to come clean. Which I immediately did, chapter and verse, supplying full contact info about the 'people' all variations of email address, phone, etc.

Sign out an affidavit basically establishing these as the facts. AA says they are interested in the broker not you; and I believe that.

Now, once they see you are cooperating, they open back your account, with the warning that if you ever do this again, you are out- no discussion.

I might be able to explain an affair (not that I have ever had to) better to my wife, than why I am not EXP on AA, and why she is in the back of the plane, and we have no eVIPS'.

So in the interim I was able to supply some good information. AA then will assess a penalty in mileage to your account.

This is based on the miles you sold; and is 1/2 of the miles you sold as a Maximum. (as I was told.)

now, this would have made my penalty more than 100K and less than 200K, so yikes, thats alot.

Any help you give, can help with their 'discretion' in dealing with you.

So, like the advice I read in one of these threads from JonNYC, and saw from folks like JDiver- here it is by one who lived through it-

1. dont do it- its not worth it, its wrong, and you will be ashamed.
2. you could lose your lifetime miles, your account, your status.
3. if it happens, cooperate, it wont be pleasant, but they want your business, and will work with you; and most likely you will keep your status, but not much else. (like pride)

Dont do it, its not worth it. If your doing it now, its a pattern they can easily recognize, so get ready to be caught.

And, be nice to the people you deal with from the audit dept. They need to protect the program, and are only doing, what you made them do by breaking the rules in the first place.

siankaan1

Darn, and I just changed my signature block yesterday. Now I have to find another.