flyer4512

My stepsons received mailers for years at my address, I flew them once on USAIR and the mailers were coming to the new AA accounts that AA created for them after the USAIr merger.

As long as you didn't apply for a Citi AA card in the name of the person the MAILER was addressed to the mailers kept coming

WrightHI

You do not understand correctly. Mailers went to (some?) people with AA accounts and no AA credit cards. My spouse and son both received them regularly on accounts they’d had for years, both with limited but non-zero earning activity. That’s one of at least four scenarios for where mailers came from: sent to legit household members with pre-existing accounts; sent to legit household members with new accounts established to generate mailers; sent to new, bogus accounts created for pets, imaginary twins, etc; or obtained mailer codes from other random people who got them through methods 1-3. We don’t have enough information in this thread to assess whether AA is acting on all or only some of those scenarios, or whether the screen is based on total number of bonuses, or some combination of factors.

My own account seems to be fine, but whether that’s because my mailers were addressed to legit accounts, or too few to trigger AA’s wrath, or too long ago, or just that they haven’t gotten to me yet, I know not. (I had two, one a bit over two years ago and one a bit under.) That’s why I, and probably others similarly situated, keep coming back to this thread, and why more information and less speculation and argumentation would be appreciated.

I can see for miles

Unfortunately there is evidence of that. One of our players has done no shenanigans, but that account is locked: We're talking not a single Citi CC SUB in at least six years, and two from Barclays in the past six years. In this instance all I can think of is it's locked because of guilt by association with family/household members who did ride the train -- and an award booking for that "straight" account holder from an account that did ride the train.

Often1

Or there is some other issue.

Bear in mind that even if this particular Citi issue did not exist, AA's corporate security does routine audits and shuts down accounts for all manner of other schemes. Not to accuse anyone of having done something else, but ascribing a freeze / shutdown to this scheme when the account holder did not engage in it, suggests that AA may have additional facts.

fttc

This is not the first time I hear something like this.

You are sugar coating what AA does every possible way.

Happy

Same here.

Some people just enjoy speculation regardless how little s/he knows about the matter. It is FT, so we got to accept this type of behavior which seems rampant in every forum. lol.

cheaptom

I ask this in all seriousness...is there one single post here on Flyteralk from someone who has been shut down and lost all their accumulated miles? A post from someone who was in the middle of their vacation and couldn't get home because AA cancelled their flight? And have they been willing and able to answer our questions about their experiences? Have they shared the text of the email/letter they received?

We've seen news reports. We've heard about Reddit people. We've seen countless posts here about "lots of people had this happen" and "AA is doing this and that." Personally, I believe all this is occurring and I am not one to say "Relax. AA will never take away any miles." I just wish we had a few more solid DPs.

Here's a post that is meant to be DPs ONLY. As you can see, there are very few posts. AA account restricted - Data Points only

Visconti

Pure speculation.

Generally speaking, not specifically related to Reddit or any other online forum/community, it's my sense that those on FT are probably a little more sophisticated in their understanding of risk management than gamers/churners/perk abusers than on other forums. It would make sense there would be less reporting of it there here?

PS - Happy - I know it's not a joking matter, but the part about "deleting all posts and going into hiding" just cracked me up!

mhdena

Maybe the post creator should have gotten the ball rolling with his/her own DP, rather than asking for DPs.

matam5671

Urgent Question:

I am leaving for a flight to Costa Rica tomorrow on Delta, but am returning on American Airlines a few days after that. It appears that my account has been shutdown, but my return flight appears to still be active and ticketed. I have not received an email about a shutdown, and no one has contacted me - but am unable to use my points.

Will my return flight still work? Or should I buy an alternate return flight ticket??

Happy

What makes you think your account is shut down? Are you not able to log in at all?

Based on all being known, public or in private, your account is not shut down else you would have received an email though said email may land in your spam folder.

If you can still log in, see your miles then your account is locked.

At this junction whether people's flights being canceled or could still fly when their accounts are locked, seems to be Very Random. Nobody knows why some could fly their existing bookings while some could not. Hence it would be advisable that you have an alternative in case your booking disappears.

Happy

He did. Though he also mentioned, and actually was willing to share information in private.

matam5671

I know based on the fact that I am unable to spend any miles, attempted the new delhi hotel booking and it gave me the error. So I suspect I am in the process. Buying a flight back would cost me about 2 grand :/

Adelphos

Again - one of the “players” in as in a household with those that “rode the train.” That is easily explainable. Your data point supports my general point - those with multiple mailer has have been targeted, not those with normal SUB activity

Adelphos

In terms of the overall direction of the thread, my main interest is to monitor data points involving those that

1) Did not sign up for multiple versions of the same card using mailers but
2) Have multiple sign up bonuses over the past couple of years for different cards or products

This is a theoretically big group of posters - many are claiming these posters are being shut down, but data points are few. These posters have a natural interest in a general AA shutdown thread. Perhaps there should be a separate thread for those that definitely have been shut down so they can share advice, tips, experiences