maxima01

Well...since my thread regarding selling Southwest rapid rewards certs on eBay got people talking.....thought I'd ask about peoples experiences selling AA miles on Ebay.

Speak up and please share your experiences buying/selling.

The biggest obstacle I see to selling and making a profit is that AA charges a fee to share miles (fee varies depending on # of miles you share). Maybe I'm missing something, but how can you make a profit if you are charged $150 transaction fee by AA to "share" 15k miles with another AAdvantage member?

And has anyone dealt with Mr. Mileage? What seems to be the going rate for 25k miles (this is the minimum they will buy according to their website)?

Yeti88

Not to encourage you to buying/selling miles on eBay or anywhere else, but when people "sell" 15k or 25k miles they usually don't put them into somebody else's account but rather "buy" an award/upgrade in somebody else's (the "buyer's") name. Gifting miles almost always incurs ridiculously high fees and is usually not advisable.

That's how most of the trades on Coupon Connection work as well. One person for example might want to trade a certain voucher for, say, 25.000 miles. To complete the deal, the buyer would not put the miles in the sellers FF account, but use them to "buy" an upgrade and/or mileage award in the sellers name.

Hope this makes sense.

Welcome to flyertalk, maxima01!

maxima01

Thanks Yeti88.....makes sense now.

ontravel

There is an E. Martinez who works for AA in Dallas, who's sole job is to monitor e-bay and try and track down people selling AA miles and any type of certificate.

If caught, your AAdvantage account is suspended. If it is your first offence, you have a choice of getting the certificate back from the buyer, then sending it to Mr. E. Martinez, or you can pay a mileage fine. Second offence, your AAdvantage account is closed.

By the way, you won't be notified if caught. But next time you try and access your AAdvanage account, you'll be locked out.

Hello Mr. Martinez

tom911

Last month, one Newburyport marketer was caught after selling for $300 on eBay a round-trip American Airlines voucher he earned from a ''Fly 2 Fly Free" promotion that gave a free ticket to anywhere in the world the airline flies to travelers who flew two round trips between Boston and Florida or Boston and California between Jan. 7, 2004, and April 15, 2004. After hours of negotiations over the phone, he agreed to give up a second ticket voucher, instead of the punishment threatened by American Airlines: lose 30,000 of his 80,000 frequent flier miles.

Tim Wagner, a spokesman for American Airlines, said the American Airlines AAdvantage program strictly bans the sale or barter of mileage or awards and works with Internet sites to terminate auctions, invalidate awards, and confiscate miles.

Some consumers are catching on and carefully crafting deals to try to avoid the wrath of the airlines.

On Tuesday, Sam Matson auctioned off his 2-year-old daughter's refrigerator art for $222.50. She's no doodling genius, but the toddler's drawings came with a ''free" round-trip American Airlines voucher to anywhere in the continental United States, possibly saving one lucky traveler hundreds of dollars.

''I'm not one that likes to break the rules but I can't use this ticket, so why not?" said Matson, a chemical engineer in Texas. ''I'll probably use the ticket for bathroom renovations."

Boston Globe link with entire story

mwhitted

''I'm not one that likes to break the rules but I can pick up some extra cash by breaking the rules in this case, so why not?"

''I'm not one that likes to break the law but I don't like this law and think it's pretty stupid and breaking it this time would benefit me, so why not?"

Why not? How about, because it's wrong? And if that doesn't do it for you, how about because you could lose all of your AAdvantage miles and benefits? And possibly (although maybe not likely) be sued by AA.

Why not...

brp

Well, much as I hate to admit it, the guy cited in the articles is not breaking the rules. He's giving away the cert for free...along with the art. Yes, I know what he's doing. But, letter of the law, he's not violing the rules.

Many are the times that we get hurt by AA due to the "letter of the law", and the fine print. Not saying that I would do what this guy is doing, but I certainly can't fault him, since he's complying with the rules.

Cheers.

Neal

Yeah right! Years ago, slot machines were legal almost everywhere. Since the entire concept was new, there were no laws banning them. Eventually, anti-gambling laws banning slot machines began popping up everywhere. So new slot machines were produced that dispensed a gumball every time the game was played! So even if you lost your money on a spin of the reels, how could it be considered "gambling" if you always got something for your money?

Seeing as how I've only read about the "gumball slots" or maybe seen one or two in an antique shop, I assume this didn't make slots legal. State and local governments didn't fall for this ploy and I don't think American Airlines would fall for this similar ploy either.

Are people still auctioning off Southwest "free drink" coupons and "throwing in"
a free plane ticket? This was rampant on eBay a year or two ago.

CG

If your sure he's following the letter of the law, I challenge you to sell your childs refridgerator art on ebay with a few grams of cocaine thrown in for free. Clearly you can't circumvent a rule (in AAs case) or the law (in the illegal drug case) by playing childish games like this.

dmc

Well, for your analogy to hold up....the AA voucher would have to be illegal.

The question is whether the voucher is transferable...if it's trasnferrable but not sellable....well then, yes, there is a wide area where things are not black and white.

mwhitted

OK. Even I have to say that's not a good analogy. I could give the flight certificate to anyone I chose, no strings attached. No problems with AA or the FBI/DEA. could NOT give anyone a few grams of cocaine, strings or no strings without some serious problems.

brp

As has been pointed out, these are not analogous situations since one item is illegal in its very nature and the other is not.

Cheers.

Efrem

Not true. Ask any lawyer about "form versus substance."

I don't know why people bother with these childish games. If you get caught they won't protect you. Might as well just sell the thing.

CG

As I clearly indicated, it isn't illegal to sell the AA miles. I was simply exposing the fallacious logic that selling something of no value with a valuable item "thown in" is any different from just selling the valuable item. I apologize if my analogy was difficult for some to understand. By definition an analogy is just that, a situation that is similar but not exactly the same.

brp

I think we understood what you were attempting to do. I just think that these are not analogous at all in that they are not even similar. The use of an item that is illegal in any context, including the gifting context, makes the whole analogy fall through, IMO. Since I can "give" the award, it can be argued (perhaps not successfully) that I'm doing that when Iseel the artwork. More nebulous. Since I can't "give" the cocaine, the analogy falls apart- again, IMO.

As for the "fallacious logic", you should state that that's your opinion unless you can site legal precedence that this is in violation of any rules. It may or may not be, but there's certainly nothing in your post that substantiates that position.

Cheers.