The nation’s oldest and largest frequent flier program quietly announced on June 1 that anyone who does not earn or redeem miles at least once every 18 months will lose all the banked miles in their accounts. Previously, the time limit was three years.
The American Airlines’ AAdvantage Program now comes in line those of US Airways and United Airlines that cut their inactivity period to 18 months at the beginning of 2007.
*MOUSE PRINT:
Translation: While the change doesn’t go into effect until December 15, 2007, it is retroactive. So, miles that you earned as recently as June 15, 2006 could expire this December rather than in 2009, if you have had no account activity since then. Here is the new policy.
An easy way to earn miles (and keep your account alive) is to buy something online at a store that gives AA miles with every purchase, or donate a minimum of 250 miles to certain charities.
If you lose all your miles, American Airlines will generously allow you to buy them back for $50 per 5000 miles, plus a $30 processing fee.
No doubt, AA’s new policy will AAnger many travelers.
The dirty rats!
The big airlines are in big trouble, just like the big auto makers. They are doing what they can to compete with newer and smaller competitors that are offering the same service for far less because they are able to operate more effectively. I don’t blame them for doing what they have to do. But they got themselves into this mess and it is their customers that are going to have to help bail water.
We, the public, need to realize that real “Campaign Finance Reform” is the critical issue we need to demand of Congress. Once we do, corporate America will cease to abuse us and behave responsibly or they will face real consequences instead of the American taxpayer “bailing them out.” I for one am, “mad as hell and refuse to take it anymore!”
It is not inevitable that taxpayers pay for corporate America’s failures.
I remember when Continental tried to charge me $25 to join their program but others were free so I declined.
And back then the miles had no expiration date at all. I think I still have a few thousand of those left.
But in all fairness, I think that if you’re not flying about once per year, yeou’re not really a “frequent” flyer.
That said, they gave you the miles and I really don’t think they should be taking them away–ever!
If the programs are too big a liability, they should simply discontinue them, and leave those who got miles alone to use them when they choose.
The problem is that these programs created to reward frequent business travelers in the early ’80s, when flying was expensive and not common, mushroomed into discount and sort of kickback programs for everyone on every type of purchase. They have very little to do with airlines or frequent fliers anymore, and they should really stop pretending they do.
Why not. Most companies are reniging on their promises concerning “promised” pension
benefits so why should AA be any different in trashing consumers. Welcome to Big
Business, AAmerican style.
On my May 2007 mileage summary, I still had 45,000 miles; in July, they take them all.
Within these 2 month period, they did not warm me at all.
I just called them and they wanted me to buy MY mileage back for $50/5000 miles. What a robbery.
As the victim of their financial probblem (their fault), what can we do as the public?
I am also in a fight with AA over my miles. This would
make a great class action lawsuit if we could get an attorney, news
media, activists, or the ACLU interested. AA knows they can fight
on an individual basis but if everyone banned together there might
be enough to legally get our miles or compensation for them back.
I am all for a class action against AA. They took away 25,000 of my miles and never gave me a warning.
They said they did not have my e-mail address. They also said they gave me warning in Citybank letters.
I did not open any of those letters because it was junk mail for a credit card. How underhanded can you get.
We need a good class action suit, count me in.
joe
I contacted AAdvantage to redeem some of my 168,000 miles. The agent advised me that my mileage had expired in 2005. After much discussion the agent told me there was nothing that could be done and put me in touch with her supervisor. He also explained that the miles had expired in 2005.
I questioned how it is possible to expire the miles and wipe them off my account without even notifying me.
I was told this was a free program, that they no longer sent out paperwork to members and that since I was not enrolled to receive electronic email updates that they could not notify me and it was my responsibility to keep track of the miles.
ONE NOTICE OR LETTER could have prevented me from losing years of accumulated miles.
Instead of planning a vacation with my miles I was told TOO BAD!
I CANNOT believe that there is no consideration about the possibility of reinstating the miles.
I was told I could buy back the miles – this is not an acceptable option.
I’d love to get in on any type of lawsuit to recover these
I went with Northwest long time ago and no regrets and NO Miles ever expired. I had a lot of miles banked and stopped flying about 7 years ago but Northwest still honored them when I recently bought tickets for my brother and his wife to fly home as a present.
I too just went online to book some airfare only to find out that my miles (62,477) had expired. What was really exasperating was that I had spoken to an American Airlines rep about 6 months ago asking if I had enough miles to cover a couple of tickets, she told me yes. But she never told me that my miles were going to expire in December. I did fly American in April, but never submitted the miles. If I can find a ticket I might be able to reactivate my miles. Talk about a needle in a haystack! I’m sure I threw the ticket/boarding pass away. If not, it MIGHT be somewhere in the house. It is unfair. Yes it’s a free program, but we all spent money to earn those miles somehwere so it is definitely not right that they can just expire them.
Well, I just found out that AA stole over 40K miles that I was saving up. I was looking online to see if anyone else was able to recover them and am very disappointed to see that we are all just screwed. I even went online in August to cash them in for a flight that of course wasn’t eligible, and there was no notice. They have my email address and my regular address to send me credit card advertisements- but they can’t send me a notice about something as crucial as this? I definitely think this should not be accepted.
Just a few days ago I received a postcard from AA with the note of the New Mileage Retention Policy … unfortunately after my 63,511 miles expired with the new policy on Dec 15th.
I would have expected to receive a t least a warning before they expire!
I planned the miles already for a visit this year … now they are gone.
Well, will use other airlines and avoid AA now.
Isn’t it interesting how we all find out they expire a little too late. I had 270,000 Miles. Yes that’s right, almost 300,000 miles that secretly expired with no notice. I pay Citibank $50 a year (and I have been saving these for about 15 years, and with NO notice. They are ALL gone at once. Obviously, if we had been aware we would have bought something, or did something to keep our accounts active. The point IS they didn’t want us to know because they didn’t want us to keep our miles. I don’t see how this is going to help them in the long run, because all it is going to do is make everyone stop using them. I personally will NEVER use them again, and I am canceling my Citbank card! I understand them changing their policy, but not being so underhanded about it. ALL my other frequent flier programs with miles that expire give have given me plenty, and repeated notice about upcoming expirations. Shame on American Airlines. If there is a class action suit. I definitely want to be a part of it!
Just noted my miles have been deleted as well. I did not realize they were expiring simply because I had not flown them in 22 months. I had planned to use my miles (a meager 26K) to take a short trip somewhere but now I’m screwed like everyone else. I can’t imagine loosing 270K miles. This is just wrong and will bite AA bigtime.
I also lost more than one hundred thousand miles.
Have any of you ever TRIED to call AA about this yet? I called them up and before I could even ask them to give me my miles back, they offered to reinstate them.
You might try calling them (politely) and asking for your miles back…
Adam –
Just this evening I was discussing with my girlfriend a trip using the 90,000 miles I had banked. Come home, log on, mile balance – 0. Thought I’d cool off a bit and do some research before lighting hope a front line CSR. Can you expand, or was it just that simple.
Adam,
can you share how to reinstate it? I talked to them about reinstating but the service rep said that I have to pay $250 to do that.
Thanks for Adam’s posting.
I was wondering what I could do as frequent flyer programmes are notorious for changing rules.
I was calling from Australia having just noticed that I’d lost over 200000 points.
I called AA and although the first agent said that there was nothing she could do she did refer me to ‘Customer Service’. I was offered the opportunity of reinstating my miles after donating some points to either ‘Make-A-Wish’ or ‘Kids-in-Need’. Frankly, I would have been happy to do that anyway without linking to mileage reinstatement. Note also that my points had only just expired.
Still, it’s worth a punt (and be polite). I hope this helps.
Call AA Aadvantage. As of 1/20/08 there is an unpublicized program where you can sign up for email notices and satisfy on of hte following requirements during the next 12 month: 1. earn 5000 miles or have someone transfer 5000 miles to you ($80), 2. sign up for the Citibank Aadvantrage charge card ($50/yr fee), 3. sign up for the travel perk program ($129). You can get 50,000 miles reinstated in this manner. You may be able to get more reinstated by doing more than one of those options. I asked CS reps on 2 separate phone call to email me the info but they declined, saying it was an unpublished “challenge” promotion. I was a little hesitant to take them at their word but at this point, having lost over 210,000 miles between 4 family members, I had no other option and went ahead and signed up for the “challenge.”
American Airlines “stole” 32,000 miles from me as well. I ABSOLUTELY would have booked a flight through them sooner rather than later in order to keep my miles HAD I BEEN NOTIFIED I WAS AT RISK HAVING ALL MY MILES TAKEN FROM ME. I too, NEVER received notification that this was happening.
I also can’t believe that they have the gall to offer me the chance to “buy back” my lost miles. The mileage I had accrued was equal to ONE FREE FLIGHT, and (surprise surprise) their buy-back program would cost the same amount as a free flight,therefore entirely NEGATING the whole point of accruing miles in a frequent flier program! It’s completely idiotic.
This expiration policy and the way AA handled its implementation is extremely underhanded. Only a half a year ago I called and checked on my points and was told they never expire. So unfair.
How do we get involved in a class action? Any suggestions as to how these get started up? If the public puts one together, SIGN ME UP!
WE NEED A LAWYER!!!!! NOW!!! My wife and I just lost 80,000 miles without notice and when we tried calling (politely) we were hung up on when we were “transferred” to a supervisor. American Airlines and the other airlines have an oligopoly on U.S. consumers and we need to take away their power. Email your congressman/woman!!
Dear All,
I am a lawyer in Australia. Obviously AA has failed to consider the implications of rolling out such a program under Australian law (which applies to them as they trade in Australia).
I have taken a personal offence to this situation given that my points too have expired and I will be investigating avenues for redress against AA under Australian law.
In Australia, the Trade Practices Act prohibits misleading and deceptive conduct, and also misleading the character of a product. Given that AA is a “trading corporation” for the purposes of Australian law, I would suggest that they have been in breach of s 52 and s 53 of that Act.
I will be raising this with them as soon as the Sydney office reopens this week, and pending the outcome of that, I will be lodging a formal complaint with the ACCC (Commonwealth) and the NSW Department of Fair Trading (under similar state based legislation).
If there are others in Australia who have experienced a similar issue and wish to join me, please post to this board and I will also include a reference to your post when I approach the relevant authorities.
Also, if there is anyone worldwide who has transacted with AA via Australia (e.g. through Oneworld, Qantas, travel agents or AA offices in Australia) you may also potentially be able to get some remedy under Australian law.
Sign me up for a class action lawsuit for earned frequent flier miles being eliminated by ALL airlines, not just American.
I lost over 100k miles earned with USAirways. Many, many, times, I attempted to use the miles but I would be informed no seats available I even applied for a BankAmerica card to keep my miles ($90 annual fee) but did not use the credit card. As a result of not using the BA card USAir deleted my miles. I eventually contacted USAirway’s executive office number only to be told sorry with a followup email with a file# so, obviously they (USAir) is keeping track of complaints concerning eliminating miles.
I will bookmark this site hoping to see a law firm willing to take this on as a class action lawsuit. If we allow this, what’s next, your bank sends you junk mail that you don’t open but inside it states since there has been no activity, we closed your account and we’re keeping the money.
Same song and dance — AA deleted 68,000 miles EACH (136,000 miles total)from my wife’s and my accounts without any notice, just as we were planning a major trip. With blackout dates most flights on AA’s schedule calendar, the few flight remaining are typically typically the worst schedules and routes. Their DisAAdvantage program is pure crap. They lead you on, bombard your mail box with their AA/Citi credit card solicitations, and then drop you like a hot potato when you’ve accumulated a usable balance of miles. Great way to cultivate customer loyalty.
agree that this should be prime class-action suit territory.
Almost all states have a deceptive business practices statute that may be applicable to an Airline (e.g. American Airlines), Courts might find a deceptive business practice when an airline actively promotes purchases that “earn” miles and income streams to the airline; provides far-before-expiration date distant warnings of potential loss of miles through inactivity, but no timely, actionable warning before mileage expiration. My wife charged purchases to a Citibank AAdvantage card, hence “earned” American mileage on a joint credit card account during the 18 month pre-expiration period, but all the (51,000+) previously earned miles expired because the recently “earned” miles were credited to my account, not hers. And during this period no American employee, who on multiple occasions saw miles on both accounts, suggested switching the credit card miles to her account. So while she was actively using an AAdvantage program, over each of the prior 18 months, and while American Airlines earned income from mileage sales to other businesses. all her miles “expired” without timely, actionable notice. It seems preferable to abstain from flying an airlines that deceptively strips earned miles from loyal customers, rather than buy back the deceptively lost miles — $500 for 50,000 miles reclaimed by deceptive practices. Class action lawsuits might require state-by-state classes, because of minor variations of deceptive business practices statutes among the various states.
Just stumbled across this thread after googling “lost AA miles expired”. I found out yesterday that I’m out 138K. I’ve been a member since 1998 and my total mileage (earned/redeemed/expired) is nearly 850K. I am a gold member now, made it to Platinum years ago, but haven’t flown AA in a couple years. Most importantly though, my email, home mail, phone number, and cell phone number have not changed in years. I sure heard from them when they have something to sell (through Citi or whatever). They even called a couple times shortly after I quit flying a lot to see if everything was okay! My travel demands on AA have simply changed over the years. Well let me tell you, this is a slap in the face. I am absolutely fuming mad. I had plans for those miles, and hadn’t thought much about them until time to use them next winter. I’ll quit now, or this post will have to be censored…absolutely pathetic, the new AA.
Okay one more thing…one AA rep said to make sure your hotel affilliates properly posted your mileage. They said that should count as “activity” and reset your 18 month window. Sounds like bs to me, anyone tried this. Anyone have proof for example that you stayed in a Hilton after June 16? Did that update your account? I know I have several hotel stays, but no proof (my fault)
I just went to book a vacation and found out 99,000 miles had been taken, expired, without my knowledge in Dec. I did not get any notification by way of email or mail. I am so MAD!!! I will never fly American airlines again and hope to join and class action law suit!
My wife, 7 year old, and 10 year old lost a combing total of 350,000 miles because we were unaware of the policey change. We logged on to the computer yesterday to book a couple of vacations this year (that we had been saving for over the last several years) and that is when we found out. Although our mailing address listed in our profiles was valid, our email addresses were old and therefore we were not notified. When I spoke with the customer service supervisor, I was informed that they only notify via email, and she found it odd that I did not hear about this especially since it was apparently broadcast on the nightly news. They are now trying to get me to sign all three family member up for a “Level 2” challenge which I am having a difficult time getting specific details on, and they will not give it to me in writing. Very frustrated about this whole ordeal, if anyone is aware of a lawsuit or has any advice on how to get one started, please post. Like a thief in the night, AA has deleted all our miles, without proper notification, in a very sneaky underhanded way. Simply unbelievable ….
I lost over 117,000 miles as well – similar story to all those posted. Was online yesterday getting ready to redeem miles for a trip to Belize and found out my account balance was zero. Seems like something of this nature should require more than just email notification. An original policy that allowed miles to be kept for 3 yrs, changed to 18 months, made retroactive, no proper notification, appears to be clear intent for a company to clear it’s books of liabilities at the customer’s expense. Let’s hope this ends up in the hands of a very aggresive law firm.
I used up all but 200 of my own miles a long time ago, but my husband still had a little more than 40,000; mileage from both accounts disappeared WITHOUT any notice in December. After finding this out on 2-13-08, I was appalled. Then, I found a offer for an Aadvantage Gold Citibank Mastercard whose first line said that my husband will get 65,000 (including their 25,000) total points as long as he applies for a credit card before 2-28-08. Extremely suspicious of Aadvantage’s tactics, I called up Citibank on 2-16-08 and was directed to four different call numbers before someone finally transferred me to the Aadvantage desk: the lady was unbelievably RUDE, lectured me about how it was my responsibility to get knowledge of the program in order to use it (she made sure to let me know that this was my fault), and also said that of course you would not get back your previous 40,000 miles back because “Citibank does not know how many miles you have.”
This sounds like completely fradulent business practice to me, especially in my state of California, because the offer letter clearly states that as long as a new card application is sent in before 2-28-08, the total mileage to the account will be over 65,000 after using the card for 4 months and spending over $750. Now I am waiting for that massive lawsuit to come up too, and be a part of it.
I told the mean lady that I will never fly American again and ended the call. This is not just to be petty, but if this airline will go to these extreme lengths to save themselves some money, then WHO KNOWS what they are doing with their main business of flying people — I am not about to jeopardize my life by flying with this airline because if they are this short on cash (or just plain evil), then I am not confident about the maintenance of the planes, the quality of the pilots and staff (I can’t imagine their work environment), and everything else that goes along with this business. American Airlines used to be such a good carrier, and this is a sad fate for them.
Just canceled my advantage account after I found out that I too lost my 32,000 miles without any warning. After some emails with customer service I was told that it was my fault and I needed to go back at find a company affiliated with the program and would get back my points. Last time I checked I work hard to spend my money and extra work for a this perk is not the expectation I have of a “Friendly Airline”. No wonder they are going bellyup!!!
I,too, lost over 130K miles. However, I painstakenly looked back at all my old records especially credit card statements (most available on-line) and found a car rental that had not been posted to my AA account. Called the rental company (Budget) and asked them to post the old rental – they did – and AA credited all the miles back to my account. Whew!! I recommend everyone look at all AAs partners and see if you can find an instance where you can ask for an old posting.
Same as above. Just discovered last nigt that my miles were gone. Wont ellaborate in the utter frustration of this deceptive practice. I did however call today and spoke to customer service and they told me about an unadvertised way to get your miles reinstated. No, its not having sex with the rpesident of AA. Still, it will cost something. Details are a bit odd, best you call for yourself and ask them about the “Challenge” (someone else above mentioned this as well).
If I find out more about this blackmail program, Ill post it.
I wo uld like to add my name to this list of frustrated aadvantage flyers. Just learned that I lost ~29000 aadvantage miles. Will explore the Challenge idea, but am also interested in other options.
Same story: almost 80,000 gone. No possibility of getting it back through ‘Make-A-Wish’ or ‘Kids-in-Need’since those programs “expired” in February…
they are offering to re-buy 5,000 for US$50 which is too much.
Is there any way to report this to a Consumer Protection Agency?
It is a very sad that AA is treating (misleading, deceiving) their customers that way.
Bob Zim (or anyone) do you mean that any activity on a partner, whether or not you gave them your AADVatnage number at the time, will get them reinstated? Or do you already have to registered as a partner with Budget or whoever? thanks!
I recommend everyone not to contact AAdvantage by phone, rather send your
request to reinstate your miles by fax 817 963 4531 and add receipts,
invoices, boarding passes of AA and One World Alliance partners.
Ditto:: 70k miles gone. The ONLY correspondence I’ve received are the Citi/American Advantage credit card offers which as you all know , were targeted towards my earned miles and directly inferred that they were active and would be built upon to be used in many ways. I’ve gone through 3 rounds of email with AA. Yes they are replying but sorry, I can only buy them back. The rep I dealt with said “I understand your disappointment in the promotion from Citibank. However, we can not be responsible for the prior balance they indicate on your account. That is a marketing promotion from them.”
Of course I replied ” the promotion is from Citi/American Airlines Advantage not solely Citibank. They are all signed by your President, AAdvantage Marketing Programs. American Airlines, Inc. Kurt Stache.”
I have the last six of my hard copy offers( December to March as some months I get two of these offers) showing my alleged active miles and a chain of email this week with some additional misleading and contradicting statements that I would love to share especially in a class action suite. My current offer is valid until March 31, 2008.
Count me as a club (that is Club of Disgruntled, EX-American Airline Frequent
Flyer Members. Between my wife and myself we lost over 180,000 miles. Like many
of you, we were planning a nice spring vacation with the miles and logged in
the first week of January only to find that this travesty had occurred. Same
story as the rest of you from American (except I was never told of any kind
of ways to even possibly get the miles back with the exception of buying them).
As most everyone else, please contact me if there is any possibility of a
class action. I too will do my part to help put AA out of business.
lost 138,000 miles. I Have not used the card in 1.5 years but was told that my miles would not expire for 3 years if inactive and the miles would never expire if I made at least 1 purchase per year. I paid $80 per year to have this privilage (platnium acct.). So I was shocked to find out my miles expired after 1.5 years of acct being inactive. they told me that they sent me an email that their policy changed and its my fault I didnt know about it. totally shady! Count me in on the class action
I lost 75000 miles as of Dec. 15, 2007.
Count me in class action suit too.
I feel for you’ll losing all those miles. But seriously, I had notice of it long before, so did my parents. Granted I stood to lose about 225k miles, and I didn’t its not that hard to keep your account active… But either way, while AA did try their best by emailing and mailing items, it still is sort of your fault. If you’d kept your info updated maybe you would have gotten the email… Oh wellz better luck next time…
To the Anonymous
Citi/AAdavantage Credit Card came the term that the miles won’t expire if one use it every three years. The term was probably changed at some point, but many people were not made aware of it. At least I did not remember I had seen it. That’s why people are upset about.
I lost over 100,000 Delta miles to expiration (without notice to me), and no reinstatement was possible without literally buying the miles back at an outrageous price. So, count me sympathetic. Let them go bankrupt is what I would say, if it weren’t for the fact that only the shareholders and employees will get screwed while the executives and board members still walk away very very rich.
Citi/AAdavantage Credit Card came the term that the miles won’t expire if one use it every three years, not every 18 months. I spoke and email with AAdvantage’s representatives many times. They claimed that it is not practical to inform all 50 million AAdvantage members their policy change.
I told them that I am not a frequent flyer. I am a Citi/AAdavantage Credit Card user. They don’t care. They provided standard replies every time. I decide to bring this issue to Small Claims Court in California. Have anyone done it and win? Who should I sue? Citi/AAdvantage Credit Card or American Airlines’s AAdvantage Program? Any advice?
Story is the same as most of you. I earned miles in July of 2006 under the 3 year expiration rule, so I figured they were good until July of 2009. Only to learn that 60,000+ miles were removed from my account in January of this year. The retroactive part of this change is simply not fair and I like many of you feel it could be construed as “deceptive advertising” or “unfair trade”. AA really needs to correct this ASAP as they will wind up spending more money defending their position in court than the few million dollars they have saved by coming up with this scheme. Citi bank might also ask the same question since they “cooperated” with AA in their advantage promotion. Considering how difficult it has become to even use your hard earned miles–what were they really saving anyway. The use of frequent flier miles rarely causes an airline to miss out on a “revenue paying passenger”. So other than a few extra gallons of gas and a bag of pretzels what is it really costing them to transport an advantage member.
I wonder if the employee, that came up with this idea, will have the bonus, that they likely received, “removed” from their compensation package?
The global concern I have is AA is knocking themselves out coming up with such a convoluted scheme, what other areas are they implementing similar ideas to save a buck or two.