gumercindo

except that there have been elite (EXP) non-abusers. Just yesterday i heard of one with over 600k BUS miles and around 4 SUBs in a couple years. (If you believe his/her metrics). Terminated.

joe_miami

Any repeat bonuses on the same card or was it four different cards/products? I thought for sure people like this (elite, long AA history) would get warnings or penalty offers, but it looks like AA truly is going scorched earth.

cheaptom

I like how the Security Department has its own little badge at the bottom of the email. Not the AA logo, but a unique icon for the Security Department itself.

Global321

Which is easier to believe/makes more sense....

A. someone on FT left out some key details/reasons about why they were terminated
or
B. AA is terminating customers with EQD's of $12,000 or more a year for getting 2 SUBs a year

"A" is a story heard again and again on FT.
"B", no matter how you feel about AA, doesn't make good business sense for AA.

mia

I think it depends the scale. A handful of higher value shutdowns can give the impression that no one is immune, even if they are not looking at most higher value flyers. One objective of a campaign like this is to increase voluntary compliance with published terms.

Often1

An EXP is not necessarily a HVC. Profitability is defined by a lot more than $ spend.

As others note, it also sends a message if there are some carefully HVC's shut down.

VegasGambler

LOL, AA is the best.

I just got an emailer, directly from them, to me, with my "real" account, which has earned 6 SUBs in the past 2 years. This email is for that account. My name, my AA number. No pets, cactuses (cactii?), friends, or family members.

Of course these emailers bypass the normal anti-churning rules, as we all know.

Do the AApologists still say that it's impossible to earn multiple SUBs without any "fake" accounts?

I'm signing up for this, of course. 50k miles is 50k miles...

joe_miami

Risking your ExPlat status for 50,000 miles?

Your username definitely checks out. Haha.

flyer4512

I also received a 50K offer today via email.........Did you check the terms ?

Card offer: American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles are not available if you have received a new account bonus for a Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® account in the past 48 months.

sdsearch

I'm not sure if this correct. In other words, it only took AA more than a decade to react if they're reacting purely to multiple SUBs and to nothing else.

But to me it "smells like" it's the "mailer abuse" that they are most upset about (except they can't easily figure out who did what mailers, so they're doing it the roundabout way which is based on the slightly-faulty assumption that "everyone" who got 3 or more SUBs for the same Citi card in two years "had to be abusing mailers", and thus going after what they can easily detect: multiple SUBs for the same card during the mailer frenzy era. (Most who got that many SUBs for the same Citi card in two years perhaps were "abusing mailers", but not absolutely everyone.)

The mailer frenzy was not around for more than a few years, so if it's the mailers that AA is most upset about (not "churning using public links"), then it's only a few years at most that it took them to react.

VegasGambler

ExPlat has 0 value to me since I don't fly AA. I guess not quite 0... I may change a partner award at some point and save a change fee.

The miles are the only thing with real value. I'm unlikely to even use my SWUs.

I believe that's always been in the e-mailers. In the past Citi has awarded the miles anyway. If they don't, no harm, no foul. I will not complain -- I have no issue with them enforcing the terms as written.

flyer4512

Nope, the only emailers that worked had no language about having a previous or current AA card.

VegasGambler

From what I remember, they had a link to terms. If you followed the link, the terms had the language.

This discussion probably belongs in the discussion about offers; this is not relevant to shutdowns.

sethMCOflyer

For anyone saying AA must be doing some sort of analysis on the profitability of a customer before shutting them down, do you have any proof before you decide people must be lying?

I think it’s much more likely the direction is to shut anyone down with 3+ SUBs in a 12 month period, no other criteria. I also doubt that there was a ton of legal analysis done, it’s unlikely they even had more than a 30 minute meeting with corporate counsel on the matter. If it’s not a blatant violation of the law then they’re doing it.

flightmedic

Here is a data point that simply shows that the stupidity continues. Account has been locked for the past 7 weeks. No information provided to me and I had one award flight a few weeks ago that I was able to obtain a boarding pass but I was not taking the flight for personal reasons. I have to think that I would have been able to board. My wife called yesterday to book a revenue flight. I had to call as I had a credit on a revenue ticket from about 8 weeks ago when I had to cancel a revenue flight. I took the $200 penalty but still have about $400 in credit (I could not figure out how to book on line and use the credit, hence the phone call). Since my wife made the call I don't know exactly what happened but between my wife and AA I ended up with an award flight booked, round trip domestically, against my account. When I say booked I simply mean a record locator was generated and the trip shows up on the AA website, but of course it is pending and will never be ticketed. I bring this up as it is mind boggling that with a locked account AA still allows for an award reservation to be made, although not ticketed.

I called back AA and they cancelled the "award" flight and changed it to a revenue flight. I really can't comprehend how AA still has not contacted many of us and they continue along as if nothing has happened. I still receive all of the email offers, etc.

The saga continues.