So i have been platinum pro or platinum last three years. I travel American exclusively because of their direct routes. I am constantly booking travel. I had an American airline credit card which was in my profile but long ago canceled. Because of my plans I would constantly look at tickets and reserve but the card on file would not go through so if I decided to book I knew I could call and switch card if not the reservation would cancel. Well apparently two weeks ago my account was locked. The communication was BEYOND TERRBILE. I could not book using my account and every time I called I was given the run around. I emailed once a day with no reply. Today I get an email claiming I owe the 68k but they will settle for 21k. Otherwise I was no longer allowed to be a memeber. The person that emailed me was afraid to even use their full name. Gave no phone number and refused to call me. Yet they claim I owe for tickets that I never even traveled with. Do I have any recourse????

beyond terrible communication must be contagious

money cash

Are you sure the email came from AA? Do you have the ability to look at the smtp headers?
Perhaps you can delete the sender's name and post the email here, so we have a clue.
What email address did you reply to? This doesn't seem like the normal method AA uses for fraud issues, and 68K / 21 K seems very odd.
(EDIT: I had assumed OP meant 21K miles, but it seems they meant $21000)
Maybe you should ask them what specifically they are accusing you of.
Were you booking mileage awards or paid travel with the credit card that was invalid.......
Surely you do not think it is OK to extend your reservation by using an invalid card. That said, I don't see why they would want miles on a non mile related activity.
Why would you even do this? You normally have 24 hours or more to pay for a reservation after booking and 24 hours after purchase to cancel one.
Award bookings on AA can generally be held for 5 days.

I have the emails and will post but I�m new so it didn�t let me

I would book since it held the ticket and gave me the option to call and purchase . Had no idea it was against their terms . They waited THREE years to tell me!

So this would act as a hold basically, for a few days? How long before it got cancelled? How many of these ended up in autocancel? I guess they are claiming damages for lost revenue?

Yes they are claiming I benefited. I�m not sure how I did not did I get miles for the unused flights. Apparently sometimes they would wait 24 hours sometimes 3-4 weeks.

Agree with this. Hard to imagine how these flights were held or purchased with an invalid card.

It sounds like a loophole/ glitch in the system, where it holds the reservation but not issuing the ticket for a while if the card doesn�t work, you may have seen it occasionally if the card doesn�t go through on an award booking, and the system emails you to call to resolve it. It seems it may also happen on paid tickets?

It sounds like they are seeking lost revenue for not being able to sell these tickets that were stuck in limbo for a few weeks. This seems subjective and a bit messy, whose fault is it, how do you calculate any damages, probably not enforceable anyway...