Using miles to get a ticket for a non-relative?
 

Hi all,

Apologies if there's a consistent and clear answer to this somewhere - I searched and didn't find anything. Without getting into the details, I am hoping to use miles to book a flight for one of my grad students for an international trip, since this will help my grant money go much further. There's no problem on my end with the institutions involved (funder, university, etc.) but will AA flag this as potentially fraudulent? Does the fact that the student is not a US citizen complicate things further? Any advice on how to avoid trouble here, or reassurance that I'm being paranoid, would be appreciated.

This is absolutely permissible. The only rule is that the other flyer can't "buy" it from you. So don't collect money!

Good luck with your research endeavors!

Just look at the rules. It is clearly permitted. The issue has nothing to do with family vs. grad student, but rather whether you "trade, barter, or accept anything of value."

It is entirely possible that AA may randomly select your grad student and ask him some questions to see if he really knows you and has paid anything for the ticket. He should answer those absolutely honestly.

If you really want to take a belt-and-suspenders approach, you could prepare an affidavit (swear to it in front of a notary) in which you describe your relationship to the passenger and swear that you have not received, have not agreed to receive, and do not expect to receive anything of value from the passenger in exchange for the award ticket. Provide your contact phone number and email address, and invite AA to contact you if they have any questions. Give the original affidavit to the traveler, along with one photocopy for each award segment. Keep one photocopy (or a duplicate original) for yourself.

It's probably unnecessary, but if AA's Revenue Protection Unit does intercept the traveler at any point, the affidavit certainly can't hurt.

What is the value of research provided by a graduate student to their academic sponsor, who's trying to stretch grant money? Zero?

OP is flying someone who is an employment relationship to themselves and obviously expects "hey, please help me with my research" as part of the deal. Seems like a a quid pro quo to me; wouldn't you fire a research assistant who wasn't being helpful and doing the job you hired them for?

Personally I wouldn't do it because giving someone a ticket really means GIVING a ticket, not "here, fly on my miles and do stuff I tell you to as a condition of continued employment"- which isn't giving anyone anything. The above board thing to do is pay for it out of the grant money as an expense needed for someone (the assistant) to do their job.

Might not get caught doing this, but this doesn't at all seem like someone "giving" their miles away.

No, it most certainly is not. Not by any stretch of the imagination. That is, unless the terms of the grant permit the OP to pocket whatever is left over. If you've seen such grants, by all means.

This has nothing to do with whether anyone gets to pocket grant money. OP is proposing transferring an award ticket to their assistant in exchange for the consideration of continued employment (the assistant is expected to do research). AA's program terms specifically rule out transfers of mileage or award tickets where consideration is involved. They should fund it out of the grant if they want to be 100% sure AA won't have a problem.

I think you are stretching the meaning AA is likely to give to "consideration".

I think it's fairly unlikely that AA will detect anything or OP will encounter problems myself if they do it that way, but I wouldn't be making any affidavits saying "oh, there was no consideration involved", because very clearly this isn't "I'm giving miles to someone and I expected nothing in return because it was a gift", and very clearly there's a quid pro quo (you fly and keep your job, I get research).

The only relevant "consideration" would be if the assistant provided something of value to the OP. By "continued employment", it appears you mean employment of the assistant, which would be a "consideration" in the other direction.

I’ve done the same a number of times, and I’ve never had an iota of trouble over the years. I don’t buy, sell or trade so it’s fine. I fully disclose and often tell the agent exactly what I’m doing, e.g. “my friends live in Cambodia and are going to Scotland to visit family” (one is American the other is British - Scots).

Though there seems to be some straining of gnats in this thread, in this instance, there’s appears to be no quid pro quo at all: you’re offering free tickets to someone who already is your report / subordinate, and it would appear your gifting of air tickets would not alter the employment relationship or terms of employment. You have the choice to spend money from your budget, or miles from your AAdvantage account. Saving budgeted money to extend your budget or spend on something else by your using miles in this instance would be very difficult to classify as a sale, purchase or barter of your miles. Whether the research assistant flies on your award or not, they’re still your employee and providing research as work to you and your institution.

Thanks, everyone. I appreciate folks weighing in.

Ignore the fear mongerers.

I've used my miles for many people over the years, including girls I wanted to go on vacation with, my ex-girlfriend/wife, friends, friends of friends, and I was a very naughty boy once although it didn't involve AA. Just tonight I booked a flight for a girl who agreed to go to Vegas with me for a few days.

I think my ex-wife, before we were married, was questioned once, but I think it was immigration asking her where she got the ticket. She told them, truthfully, that I had gotten it for her and she had no idea where I had gotten it because I took care of that stuff. It was one of these things where immigration called me and once our stories matched up they let her pass. (It was in Canada where they have pre-clearance so you go through immigration and customs before boarding to fly to the USA.)

I'd think somewhat naively that AA has at least a moderately sophisticated model that flags likely fraud situations, and a one-off isn't going to trigger it. I mean, yes you could be the one time in 100,000 that something trips you up or someone has a fight with their spouse and decides to take it out on you or your researcher, but it's really not something to stress over. At all.

Must have been quite an entourage with the wife, girlfriends, and girls you wanted to vacation with.