Dec 18, 2019, 12:31 pm
Last edit by: wyogold
Related discussions in other Flyertalk forums:
AA potentially closing accounts due to credit card churning/churn
How to know if you're locked: (as of 12/22/2019)
- Call in to aadvantage reservations (800-882-8880) If you locked, you'll be forwarded to customer service instead of getting to the automated reservations system
- If you want to stay on the line, ask CSR if your account is locked (you tried to make a reservation but it wouldn't let you). CSR will inform you there's a note on your account and that corporate security will contact you
- Try to make a reservation for a super cheap hotel through useaamiles.com. There are 1000 miles / night hotels in New Delhi, so at worst you'll risk 1K miles. If you're locked, you'll see "Unable to process points. Please call our customer service for assistance."
So far, nobody seems to have gotten unlocked and gotten access to their miles back. Accounts with upcoming travel seem to be the ones that are getting terminated at the highest rate.
AA potentially closing accounts due to credit card churning/churn
How to know if you're locked: (as of 12/22/2019)
- Call in to aadvantage reservations (800-882-8880) If you locked, you'll be forwarded to customer service instead of getting to the automated reservations system
- If you want to stay on the line, ask CSR if your account is locked (you tried to make a reservation but it wouldn't let you). CSR will inform you there's a note on your account and that corporate security will contact you
- Try to make a reservation for a super cheap hotel through useaamiles.com. There are 1000 miles / night hotels in New Delhi, so at worst you'll risk 1K miles. If you're locked, you'll see "Unable to process points. Please call our customer service for assistance."
So far, nobody seems to have gotten unlocked and gotten access to their miles back. Accounts with upcoming travel seem to be the ones that are getting terminated at the highest rate.
AA accounts restricted (Nov/Dec 2019)
Feb 14, 2020, 3:14 pm
#2596
Join Date: May 2014
Location: LAX
Programs: AA, UA, DL, NSA, CIA, MIB
Posts: 537
What I find interesting is that even if you have a Barclays AA card along with those Citi AA cards they still killed the account, making the Barclays AA card pointless as well.
Feb 14, 2020, 3:16 pm
#2597
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: NYC
Posts: 6,433
As far as what we might learn, who knows. The goal is to raise the cost of compliance for AA as high as possible and potentially force an error. State AGs do this and maybe one or two bite and demand AA do some real work to defend themselves. Flooding all channels with attacks at this stage achieves a lot of goals.
State AGs are preempted from acting with respect to miles earned or used for flying (maybe straight contract enforcement) by the express provisions of the ADA. Whether they can act on miles earned or to be used elsewhere is an open question, as has been discussed repeatedly. It would be interesting to see if any even try. How long would it take an AA lawyer to repeat the language about misrepresentation and fraud and then add a paragraph about preemption? Even if any state AGs start, how many would devote resources to this fight? It's worth a shot, but it seems a long shot.
Feb 14, 2020, 3:32 pm
#2598
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 1,857
Of the very limited datapoints in this thread, we have at least one person whose household losses (at AA's valuation of 1 cent/mile) would be over $60k. That's not including any expenses incurred by people who may have been stranded when their accounts were shutdown mid-trip. It's doubtful anyone did this, but if someone purchased last-minute international F/J tickets to get their family of 6-8 back home, you've easily passed the 6 figure mark. I'm not a litigious person, but that's a number most people would be willing to work for a couple years to recover.
Feb 14, 2020, 3:41 pm
#2599
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 746
No longer relevant.
Last edited by OssianBlue; Jul 6, 2020 at 6:54 pm
Feb 14, 2020, 3:44 pm
#2600
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: BA
Posts: 954
How is a small claims judge going to react to the Supreme Court being invoked? Methinks small claims courts are not well suited to a debate on the merits of whether or not NW v Ginsberg applies to this case.
Feb 14, 2020, 3:46 pm
#2601
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: NYC
Posts: 6,433
Of the very limited datapoints in this thread, we have at least one person whose household losses (at AA's valuation of 1 cent/mile) would be over $60k. That's not including any expenses incurred by people who may have been stranded when their accounts were shutdown mid-trip. It's doubtful anyone did this, but if someone purchased last-minute international F/J tickets to get their family of 6-8 back home, you've easily passed the 6 figure mark. I'm not a litigious person, but that's a number most people would be willing to work for a couple years to recover.
Feb 14, 2020, 4:25 pm
#2602
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Global
Posts: 5,998
Agreed. If AA invokes a SOTUS ruling, a local judge will likely act quickly. Case dismissed.
Feb 14, 2020, 6:41 pm
#2603
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 10,904
I would think that a small claims judge would be pretty impressed with a plaintiff who has actually taken the time to research this. It's not like you will be droning on for hours.
"Your honor, in NW vs Ginsberg, the court limited their ruling to cases where miles were exclusively earned through air travel. This case involves miles which were earned through credit card sign-ups. This case does not concern the fares, routes, or services of any air carrier. Therefore, the ADA does not apply. Thank you."
Last edited by VegasGambler; Feb 14, 2020 at 6:47 pm
Feb 14, 2020, 7:40 pm
#2604
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: DCA
Programs: UA US CO AA DL FL
Posts: 50,262
I also don't think that it matters what a small claims court judge thinks, says or does. AA is making a point here and need only remove the matter to federal court and move to dismiss (all stuff on some AA paralegal's hard drive). Once a bunch of these are removed, it's off to an MDL where they can all be disposed of at once.
Feb 14, 2020, 7:43 pm
#2606
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 10,904
It's not a statutory limit. It's a limit for that the particular court (not for the particular wrong that AA committed).
Feb 14, 2020, 11:54 pm
#2607
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: SFO
Posts: 487
I continue to believe that it is way too early to pursue legal action yet and that it is better to let the DOT complaint process conclude. We have confirmation DOT is not satisfied with AA's responses and that dozens of complaints have been filed thus far. So if you have been shutdown get on that! The guidance we have been given is to focus on how AA's action was "unfair and deceptive". Plenty of ways to approach this depending on the facts of your shutdown.
Feb 15, 2020, 6:12 am
#2608
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 746
No longer relevant.
Last edited by OssianBlue; Jul 6, 2020 at 6:54 pm
Feb 15, 2020, 7:55 am
#2609
Join Date: Mar 2005
Programs: Continental Onepass, Hilton, Marriott, USAir and now UA
Posts: 6,439
Feb 15, 2020, 8:21 am
#2610
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 10,904
Why wait? It seems like locking your account is just as bad as closing your account. May as well get the ball rolling early...