MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

But the OP never took those flights. He simply allowed the booking to eventually die a natural death after AA gave up on waiting for correct cc information. In essence the OP got a free extended hold. Yes he took seats away that could have been sold albeit they probably were sold in the grand scheme of things. Extended holds cost what $15 or so?

s0ssos

It's the same. If you've ever put a ticket on hold you get a PNR. Just like if you were to buy a ticket.

And if you speak of "contracts", as often FTers do whenever someone complains, what does the contract say about not paying for a ticket in timely fashion? Is there a penalty?
I don't think so. That is why the only thing they can threaten OP with is the AA account. Because there is otherwise nothing illegal.

percysmith

Wrt the AA account, possession is nine-tenths of the law.

Often1

You and I have no idea whether AA would have extended the same offer to an EXP with 1 Mill miles banked who did the same thing. That individual might well pay $13K. OP, not so much.

VegasGambler

But we are talking about actual damages here. If AA were to sue OP, they would only be entitled to their actual damages. Since AA sells the ability to hold a fare for $9 per PNR (or whatever -- I actually don't know how these fees work) their damages are limited to that amount.

Again, OP was fraudulently obtaining a free holds on tickets, not free tickets. Holds have value, but they do not have value equal to the ticket. In this case, AA conveniently assigns a maximum value to the holds (since they sell them) so we do not need to go into any complex mathematics to determine their value.

But of course, AA is not suing here (because they know they would lose, for exactly the reasons above); they are simply setting a price for the OP to continue to do business with them. This means that they can set the price to be whatever they want (personally, I would not do business with someone who defrauded me for any amount of money). But the claim that AA suffered $33k (or whatever) in damages is laughable. AA's damages are under $1000 here (holds for 63 PNRs).

AA100k

Maybe not for the OP at the moment, but for myself, I earned half a million redeemable miles flying last year, so that�s worth a bit not to mention the elite status benefits.

s0ssos

Hmm, is half a million miles good enough for one-round trip trip crossing some ocean?
I haven't redeem AA miles in a while, so I looked it up. SF to AKL, 400k in business. Very good. But that involves one connection. And it seems like that if only a web special. Regular fare is 655k.

rumboj

Look, just because everyone can�t find sweetspots for redemption on AA flights, doesn�t mean that there are none. AA has several partners with award availability. Additionally, there is some sAAver and web special award availability that some might find appealing. As I often check routes for fun, I would say there is more AA availability this year than the same time last year. As an aside, alarmingly, in checking expert flyer, I even see C space just out there...up to C7 on some flights yet so many say they can�t find any. One just has to be willing to look and accept that there might not be availability on flights or routes that one is most desirous of.

AA100k

I went SAN-FCO and return for Christmas last month for 180,000 miles in J on AA metal. Plenty if good J bargains on One World partners as well.

Dave Noble

In many countries , offering a form of payment that will not be honoured is fraudulent and illegal

ryan182

I have to say your candor is notable and rare, if not even unique, as relates to posts related to AA account locks on FT so ^^ for owning your mistakes and not posting a bunch of BS here like so many others have done. Their ask of 13K is a rather princely sum given your mileage balance and only LT Gold and I can't fathom a scenario where paying that would make sense for the privilege of being an AAdvantage member. If you had a couple million miles in your account maybe, but for 4,000 miles and LT-Gold I think you very much made the logical choice. You could always join BA and use that on any AA flights you take, heck if you end up with BA status Silver gets you OWS and free AC, Gold OW Emerald and AC/Flagship access on any AA domestic flight so if you buy f/j domestically there's a reasonable argument to be made that you're better off with BA Gold than EXP!

percysmith

Did they threaten to put you on their no-fly if you don't pay $13k?

ryan182

I'd expect that AA will happily take his money for flights, he just cannot be a part of their FF program, even while his account was locked he wasn't prevented from flying just prevented from using the program.

TomMM

But what is preventing the OP from continuing to do this? I am assuming a FF account isn't needed to do what they were doing.

bunkunu

I believe the late charging thing is a policy matter
amazon does the same thing they don�t charge your card until the item ships or is fulfilled
so you can get a confirmation email but may get a decline email later