American Airlines has shut down a number of frequent flyers loyalty accounts due to perceived credit card rewards “abuse”. I promised an update on this situation so here we are. It seems that the pattern these shutdowns are following is as follows:
- Account is ‘locked’
- Reservations are cancelled
Some other things to note:
- Previously it was uncertain what would happen to existing reservations but unfortunately it’s all bad news with everything booked via miles being cancelled for people with shut down accounts. This includes people mid itinerary
- If you’ve had reservations cancelled some people have had the taxes/fees automatically refunded, but others will need to contact American Airlines directly to get these refunded.
- The easiest way to check if you are locked is by trying to book a ticket. If the ticket is ticketed (and not just pending) then you’re not shut down. You can also try to call in and see if there is a note on your account about corporate security (personally I don’t think this is a good idea as the less eyes on your account the better).
- Citi is claiming that have nothing to do with these account shut downs at all and there is nothing that can be done on their end
- Shut downs are coming through extremely slowly, it seems that American Airlines corporate security is manually processing these and are only able to do a few per day. The shut downs are ongoing so even if you haven’t been shut down yet, it doesn’t mean you’re in the clear.
I think this should go without saying, but don’t use the mailers that aren’t targeted to you to try and bypass the rules any longer. It will lead to a shut down.
Any updates this month?
I guess not.
ill likely take them to small claims court, fuck em. gonna consult a lawyer first, and if they say to go ahead, i will continue. AA’s stock in dropping so we should all kick them while they’re down. corona virus could really fuck w/ their stock price and we should take advantage of this
My account was shut down last week. Around 670K lost. Used 3 mailers last year, 2 AA plat and 1 AA business. Have not even got the bonus from AA business probably because my account has been already locked. Do not think there is any other “Violation”. Planned to have some redemption late this year but did not expect such action from AA.
My axe came today. 507k lost. I had a few revenue flights over the last couple of years, but 7 AA cards (1 Barclays; 1 AA biz, 1 AA gold, 4 AA plat from Citi). I believe the gold and 2 plats were using mailers from straw accounts so I’m not surprised I got banned. Alas I only had 1 redemption last March, should have been more aggressive redeeming but who knew they’d do what they did.
fuck just got the axe
Today was my day to get the ax. I am looking into small claims for the value now gone from negligence on Citi’s side. Anyone else looking to discuss or groups (since the subreddit group is closed for business) would want to join in.
Do you know if you were locked previously?
I did not. I did not try to find out.
im in
Well, looks like bans are still going out. Just got hit yesterday. Probably due to mailer use. Oh well. Lost a couple hundred K. Should’ve redeemed them previously for first class flights but who knew this was going to happen. Or should’ve redeemed for gift cards if possible when the initial wave of bans started to happen.
Could you call in and get the automated response, or transferred directly to agent (locked)?
Our family of 3 have 3 one-way award tickets for July (daughter and I under my account and husband’s ticket is on his own). I called in to change a domestic segment like I did in the past three years and all tickets are still on request for over 1 hour. Not a good sign! I did not get transferred to CSR immediately but it does not mean I am not locked.
I looked at the history and the last time I applied for Citi cards was in 2017. Husband applied last time was in 2018 and still holds the card. Maybe both of us did apply for one card each from mailers sent to our address under our names before 2017, that was it! We did apply for Executive cards twice for 100K each in 2014 (I believe) and maybe one or two cards each from 2011 – 2013 (cannot remember now).
Any update on your situation? Did your ticket changes go through? Did you use the mailers to bypass the 24 month language at that time?
Tickets are still on request. Whatever mailers (1 or 2) before 2017 were sent to our house and I think husband and I applied for them but I dont remember receiving more than 2 mailers. I could be wrong. I dont think we ever got so many mailers like a lot of people here.
I just booked with United at a double rate of mileage redemption since I think the account is locked. This really sucks! AA is doing a mass killing although I dont think I ever bypassed like a lot of people did, or MSed. I think AA basically just targets any account which has got bonuses from Citi cards, maybe as well as Barclays. It does not matter how often and how many times.
I was thinking – this might be the issue: “We did apply for Executive cards twice for 100K each in 2014 (I believe)”
– if you applied twice in one year, would mean that it bypassed the 24 month rule? They must be looking for some sort of a violation (even if you were theoretically not aware it was a violation). Do you remember anything around this?
Speaking of mailers – I never received any non-transferable ones and ones that didn’t specify 24 months in the last 5 years… so I never applied through mailers, nor bypassed the 24 month rule. But still I’m certainly not feeling great about the no-transparency gestapo unethical type methods taken by AA to deal with abuse. AA is acting no better (probably worse) than those who ‘abused’ the system, or profited from AA’s lack of control
/ knowledge over their program. These programs profit off people who lack control / knowledge, so it was fair game.
People abused the system, yes, but AA allowed it. Where fraud took place, fine close accounts, but to lock accounts like on your situation above, is very upsetting! At the very least they should be transparent as to why they are locking accounts….
Yep the tickets are still on request!
AA basically is doing a mass killing no matter what you did. I am nowhere to be close to those abusers!
“We did apply for Executive cards twice for 100K each in 2014 (I believe)” – back then did we have 24 months rule? I cannot remember. 1 or 2 mailers were sent to us before 2017 and we thought it was great but other than that we did not do anything related to abusing like some people did.
I recall there being some kind of vague 12-18 month rule back in 2014.
I believe 2014 had 24 months rule (even year 2013 already had it). There was even a further change of open or closed, so essentially 24 months from closed date. So I didn’t get my 2nd card until 3.5 years later. never used mailers, always waited our the time. not locked, but cannot trust AA at all though…
Terrible that they cancel tickets like that. Do you plan to go to small claims court for this?
Also decided to call AAdvantage CSR and she did not say anything about account lock but I am not sure she looks deeply enough into the account either. Very frustrating!
Did the CSR say why the ticket is on request? And if it will go through?
The reservation CSR just said they put the request back on queue again after she saw that there was an advice about a slight change on arrival time for the internation segment flight and I told her I am OK with that change. She said she processed it and it takes 24 hours to be ticketed but that was just a generic time frame. And the reservation is still on request of course. The AAdvantage CSR cannot see “on request” status so she transferred me back to the reservation line! I just hung up at that time.
My reservation and husband reservation got re-ticketed last nigh after the CSR addressed the advice from Cathay flight. It took about 12 hours to be re-ticketed. Given that our flights are not until the end of July, who knows what will happen! I am going to keep United reservation as a backup plan and will pay $360 for mileage re-deposit for our family of three’s tickets if I cancel the United tickets. It should give me a piece of mind if AA cancels the tickets 1-2 days before departure like a lot of people have got hit.
Congrats on getting ticketed. Fingers crossed AA stopped the witch hunt… Otherwise there will be no passengers left 🙂 Let us know what happens down the road..
Yeah the trip not until July 30 so we will see!
Ours is in September and I typically earn around 100k miles through the shopping portal per year… but now with this lack of trust in AA I will be using other ailine’s portal shopping. (Though I’d like to use AA;s, but I just cannot trust them). Just one data point of the non-abuser taking away business from AA for their lack of ethical handling of their customers.. I’m sure there are thousands doing similar business transfer….
True. There is a bank deal where you can earn AA miles but did not proceed with it because of what AA is doing.
I got a shutdown letter today . I have been keeping an eye from past 2 months and had 220K miles remaining. Total cards applied 4 personal+4 BIZ (~)550 K miles accrued. Last approved card is from May 2019 and it was all legit spending without MS. I have booked and traveled with 5 tickets this month with AA card since miles were too high to use (40 K one ticket and cash price was $230 ) .
So I would say shutdown is definitely coming for all if you have applied many cards and/or did MS.
Did you apply for cards with mailers? You applied for 4 personal and 4 buisness cards in how long (1 year ?? or 2 years??). TIA.
I have applied between Dec 2017 and May 2019. I did apply directly using mailer targeted to my family as well as from reddit exchange.
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