Were these rental car credits traded or sold openly on your forums? If so, I could see how it may have more directly impacted the community you've built and why you'd be more vocal. It seems like some sort of warning would have been more appropriate from AA.

Sure, it's an open forum and people can do what they want.
That doesn't change how I see the issue. And I still fail to see how it differs from people trading hotel point transfers on FT.

I can't find it - did someone argue that trading hotel point transfer on FT was different somehow?

I don't think I'd be outraged if trading hotel point transfers on FT resulted in a shutdown.

You (not you personally) materially misrepresented to another that a rental was done by you and that you are entitled to mileage credit. In the process, you caused AA to take an action (reinstatement of forfeited miles) that AA would not otherwise have taken - resulting in a loss for AA. That's pretty much the definition of fraud.

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FRAUDULENT MISREPRESENTATION

THELAW.COM LAW DICTIONARY & BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 2ND ED.
A false statement or misrepresentation made intended that the listener will rely upon it and act upon it to their detriment.

1. Nothing on the car rental agreement says you can only use the renter's FFN, so what exactly was the false statement? It just asked for a mileage number.
2. Why doesn't AA just reject the transfer if they insist on it matching?
3. If AA didn't reject the transfer but still is unhappy, why don't they just expire the miles and issue a final warning?

Sure, they can throw the baby out with the bathwater if they want, but plenty of people had no idea AA would care and will no longer earn any revenue for AA for their lifetimes. And others that see AA cracking down on churning cards and this may think twice before they credit their next activity to AA, which will also cost AA revenue.

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You're focusing on the -wrong- program. You should be asking AA what their terms and conditions are. After all, you're asking for mileage credit from American Airlines, not from a rental company. I'll save you the effort: Mileage will be credited only to the account of the AAdvantage� member who flies, rents a car, stays at a hotel, or earns mileage utilizing other participating companies. No mileage credit will be awarded for canceled flights and/or through being accommodated on another airline. Seems pretty cut and dry, doesn't it?

Why should an airline continue to do business with a customer who goes through fraudulent means to earn miles?

I am sure that AA has done the math. And frankly, I find credit card churners to have earned their just desserts. They're not flying. They're using credit card sign ups to earn millions (yes, millions) of miles and taking award space from passengers who earned miles via legitimate means. For every credit card churner, I can guarantee you there are actually two or three paying customers who are fed up with AA because they can never find award space to Europe in spring in fall for less than 300,000 miles per seat. Part of that is due to churners flooding the market with miles and taking awards seats from actual customers who pay AA to transport them from A to B.

If I were AA, which customer would I rather retain: 1) a churner who earns 250,000 miles (at $0.005 a mile) yielding AA $1,250 in points sold who then immediately turns around and takes 4 first class tickets from Washington to San Francisco, or 2) a paying passenger (lets say a Platinum Pro) who earns even 250,000 miles a year through flying, credit card usage, hotel stays, and rental points yielding to AA $875 from points sold and $11,000 in ticket revenue. Seems pretty clear cut who AA would rather work with, no?

That there's fraud? Nope.

AA can surely reject the mileage request based on that language. They can also expire their miles if they only caught it afterward.
But I don't see any case to cry fraud.

You have a completely convoluted definition of fraud and misrepresentation. You obtained a receipt from someone that is not you and you represented to a program official that it was you who was entitled to the points. Misrepresentation like that is fraud. Take it from several attorneys who agree with me. You create every excuse in the book - going as far as attacking auditors from doing their jobs. But you never once state that the persons who are doing what they are doing are in the least bit wrong. I'm not entertaining this discussion further.

Never said that, but thanks for putting words in my mouth.
Cheers.

IADCAflyer 7 - ctownflyer 3

Out of 10

AA is known to be rather draconian, see the crackdown on trading goodies on coupon connection a few years ago. Miles & points websites that don't point that out are doing a disservice to their readers?

As far as lost revenue to AA is concerned... people who couldn't muster a transaction in the past 18 months are probably not really the high rollers that AA wants...

Yes, said that many times about selling points and eVIPs. But the bans over churning and car rentals suggests that AA corpsec is expanding their mission.

Like with United's regret over cutting JFK service, the lost revenue might not come from people flying the route or letting miles expire, but from systemic loss of people's investment in a program that's overly draconian.

Obviously that's AA's call. But people working in AA audits these days need to justify their existence in an era when mileage brokering is at a standstill. I fully expect them to continue searching like the AMEX RATs for more perceived fraud, whether that's good or bad for AA is fair debate IMHO.

I know many people think the miles and points blogger world is full of lefties. Well, Dan is crediting Trump with the UAE-Israel deal, so he's bucking the trend:

FWIW, I consider myself a centrist and I'm not afraid to credit people on any side of the aisle for the good they do. This is a huge step forward for peace in the middle east and I can't wait to fly EK/EY to TLV.