enviroian

Trying to figure out the bottom line here and the point of your post. You have 600K miles and want to know if you can sue AA if they take them away?

Having a hard time figuring out what you are looking for.

jordyn

Your second paragraph seems to contradict your perfect understanding of OP's question in the first paragraph.

Djokison

LondonElite

jordyn

Oh yes, I read the causality backwards.

In any case, AA's Terms and Conditions for AAdvantage actually doesn't give them the ability to terminate your account for suing them. They CAN terminate your account for fraud or breaking AA's rules, but not just because they're mad you beat them in court.

Having said that, if they were to cancel your AAadvantage account, you'd basically have no recourse other than to complain to the DoT since the Supreme Court has taken away your ability to sue over disputes regarding frequent flier programs.

ijgordon

You could tweet about it too.

dallas1855

i love all these opinions posted here. no real experience and no knowledge of the system. i spend more time in the air than on the ground and i've threatened to sue two major airlines on two separate occasions because they just didn't do what's right and what their contract of carriage specified they should do. both cases were settled before they ever got to court. if you feel you have been wronged and can clearly prove it in court, sue. if the airline retaliates you can sue them then for damages.

most importantly tho, if you are lifetime plat on American and you have been wronged in a way that you'd win in court they should absolutely work with you. don't take first or second no for an answer and email them again. try twitter as well. surprisingly, they are more responsive via twitter. however, if after going thru all of this your demands are not met and you are clearly in the right and can prove to a judge that you are right and they are wrong sue them in small claims court. no big company will go thru the headache of hiring lawyers to settle a case thats few hundred or couple k.

QueenOfCoach

My suggestion.

Stop talking about this in an open public forum and, instead, talk to a competent attorney who can properly advise you on a way forward.

joe_miami

One thing to keep in mind here: At a lot of companies, once someone even threatens a lawsuit, all further communications or complaints get routed to the legal department. That's not anything to worry about if it's a one-off dealing, but if you're planning to remain a frequent AA flyer and this isn't regarding a huge amount of money, I'd do everything possible to resolve the issue with higher-ups at AA — letter via certified mail, etc. — before even mentioning a lawsuit. (Of course, without knowing the details, that plane might have already left the gate in this particular case.) Good luck.

C17PSGR

Yes ... but competent attorneys don't take cases in Manhattan that are in small claims court.

jordyn

Seems pretty counterproductive to the idea of using small claims court to have to pay for an attorney in advance. This is like telling someone looking for help on a DIY home improvement project to talk to a contractor.

LINDEGR

Posts above indicate otherwise!

Often1

1. If you simply review AA's COC, you will see that there is no mandatory arbitration clause.

2. I find it hard to believe that AA would revoke your status and zero out your account or otherwise punish you for a SCC claim which is not frivolous. On the other hand, SCC cases are almost never reported in any form and the fact that something is or is not discussed on FT is hardly dispositive.

AA, just like many businesses, sometimes litigates cases because it does not want it said that it makes it easy for litigants. No idea what or why the case discussed above was litigated, but with a $5K cap on damages, it is not hard to run over that in legal fees with even a marginal law firm. So, there must have been something about the case which triggered AA's willingness to spend. One thing which large businesses are very good at doing is evaluation the value of litigation vs. settlement.

LondonElite

kenish

A relative works in Customer Relations for a major retailer. Each person manages a complaint from beginning to end while working with the customer and internal parties including Legal. She's told me that occasionally part of a settlement agreement is the customer will not do business with them again. Those cases are when they feel the customer could cost more time and money than they are worth to the company, and don't want further exposure. (They are very proactive with valid complaints). I don't know your specific complaint or how AA would handle this but it's possible their settlement might include your not flying AA in the future, which would have the same effect as closing your AAdvantage account. From AA's perspective, it would not be retaliatory, but rather part of the quid pro quo of a settlement you agree to.