If you want to protect yourself, most airlines will allow you to put a PIN on your account.

This way the person would have to know your name, address and PIN in order to fraudulently or mistakenly use your miles.

Try contacting them again.

No, I didn't get to chat with those "in our seats" because I was never told what seats they were assigned. Our assigned seats were very nice, though--first row bulkhead seats in coach class right in front of the video screen and easy for my then 6 year old to go to the restroom. Plenty of legroom, too, and that was great because I hadn't had enough miles for first class or business.

Believe me, if I had been able to identify the people "in my seats", I'd have played very dumb and gotten as much info as I could have about the travel agent and the transaction(s). I'd have then been able to call the actual agent/agency and confront them about what they'd done. AA would not tell
me the name of the agent/agency and they didn't want to pursue it once they determined that they had seats to give me. I'd let it go because my first battle was getting all 5 of us to Hawaii at the same time!

See you on the boards!
SWAL

Wow Shannon -- that was indeed creepy! That wasn't one of the hijacked flights was it? I wonder if the Homeland Security folks would be interested in knowing about your experience...

With the rise in identity theft, I believe more attention needs to be made to confirming exactly who the parties to a transaction are. Even without deliberate identity theft, mistaking two different people of the same or similar names can create all sorts of problems, as I have personally experienced:

1. Stockbroker with same first/last name as me skips out on hotel conference room payment, the hotel comes after me. Resolved with one phone call.

2. Get a call from a US Securities Exchange Commission investigator about the same guy in # 1. Also resolved with a simple phone call.

3. Process server contacts me about a garnishee payment issue from a Heating contractor operated by a guy with almost identical name as me. Actually knew this guy due to association in same ethnic/church background. This could have really damaged my credit rating if it got filed against me instead of the other guy but thankfully convinced the server that I've never been associated with such a business but knew who it was and who founded the business (his father).

4. Accused of passing a bad cheque by The Bay - was due to a altered driver's license (my wallet stolen a while before hand) and a forged signature on a counterfeit cheque. Had to give a written afadavit stating it weren't me.

Most of these appear to have happened because either a phony address was given or the person has moved and they tracked me down using the phone directory to reverse look-up the name.

Glad to hear in the end it all worked out for you...Not even some bonus miles added for the aggrevation they caused you?

Boy, after all that, I'd probably change my name..

I had the reverse happen....am in Finnair Saph and booked reward flights between US and Canada......5 months...no points taken from my account....if there is someone out there with missing points....sorry

This sounds like enough information to follow up and find out what happened. Did you contact the travel agency? Was there another
party of 5? The airline clearly knew who these people were. Did they
ever admit it?

I don't know about you, Jiffy, but I reconcile my AAdvantage account much more carefully than my checking account. I only get paid twice a month, but I earn miles far more frequently!

These questions were already answered in post #18.

Funny - I just had the opposite occur - miles showed up in my Aadvantage on-line account for a trip I didn't take - flight numbers, bonus and everything, round trip to chicago. Someone at aa.com must have discovered the error and a few days later they disappeared.

Has anyone ever been the permanent beneficiary of misposted or phantom miles?

Thanks, I missed that. Seems strange!