If you're a somebody, I'm sure AA knows who you are.

If you're just a garden variety elite, I doubt AA cares enough to put the effort into figuring out who you are by your forum posts. Barring something cataclysmic or fraudulent...

Let's put it this way:

It would be trivial for AA to figure out who I am. I've posted trip reports and specific info. Heck, my FlightMemory alone would give a big indication (someone who flew a lot out of BOS and lived up that way, connected a lot through DFW, and now lives in Austin, all easily gleaned without much effort here). I've jokingly called myself AA's least valuable EXP (now former).

Yet, somehow, they still felt it wise to offer me the comp PLT for the summer after I totally lost status with AA at the beginning of the year, and the possibility of extension. Tells me they haven't bothered to connect the dots with me at least .

I disagree.

First of all, most people don't post at all.

Second, many who do post only occasionally anything that might give specific info. I mean, I can make posts like this all day, and what in the world do they reveal about who I am?

I have a hard time thinking back how many years it's been since I posted a specific flight I've been on. (And in any such rare case, I didn't post my seat number or anything.)

In the AA forum, when I tend to post stuff about flights, it's almost always general stuff, not stuff specific to one flight.

Not that I care that much if AA figures out who I am. I'm not posting any stuff about AA that I'd be scared if it was attributed to my real name. (Some other forums dealing with other travel companies, maybe .)