American Airlines passengers report a 'rash' of one kind of theft
An American Airlines traveler described his effort to retrieve $13,000 in value stolen from him.
Many frequent flyers engage with airline loyalty programs to earn and redeem miles for flights, upgrades, car rental deals and other cost-saving measures and amenities.
But recent incidents with American Airlines (AAL) AAdvantage accounts include a couple of high-profile travel writers with their own experiences on the subject.
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From these accounts, there appears to be at least anecdotal evidence that AAdvantage account fraud episodes are occurring with some frequency.
Gary Leff of the View From the Wing blog wrote on April 20 that he had corresponded with about a dozen readers in the past two weeks who said they had had miles stolen from their American Airlines accounts.
When an account is hacked, passengers have to get a new AAdvantage number. The theft victims are also required to report the crime to the police.
The process of reporting the theft can present its own set of troublesome difficulties.
American Airlines AAdvantage account holders react to events
Leff, after discussing what he called an "absolute rash" of recent incidents he's been following, noticed something curious about a phone call he had with an American Airlines agent on April 19.
"I ... found that the agent was required to verify a lot more information than usual from me before issuing the ticket," Leff wrote. "Something systematic seems to have happened that's led to this."
The Points Guy's Clint Henderson wrote on April 19 that he had awakened one recent morning to discover in an email that he had been the victim of a serious fraud attack on his own AAdvantage account.
"Someone had used my miles the night before to book two rentals from Avis (CAR) via Rocket," Henderson wrote. "Of my more than 400,000 stockpiled AAdvantage miles, there were just over 20,000 miles left in my account."
After some investigating, Henderson was told that American Airlines considered the 449,000 stolen miles to amount to a value of $13,260.25.
He also discovered he was required to file a police report and send it to American as a PDF.
Henderson explained that his frustration was elevated further when he realized he would then have to deal with the New York City Police Department (NYPD). Shutterstock
American Airlines' police report requirement leads to more stress
After going to a local police precinct in New York City, Henderson filled out the required report.
Then, he was told he couldn't have a copy of it. He explained to the police that American Airlines requires him to send them a copy of it to get his miles back.
"I was told in no uncertain terms that there was nothing they could do, and they wouldn't even give me a report number," Henderson wrote. "I was told I would have to go to a special office at police headquarters in lower Manhattan at some point if I wanted to request the documentation. I walked away from the station very, very frustrated."
The next day, however, Henderson reported he received a call from a different NYPD detective who said she would send him a copy of the police report after all.
"I'm not sure why I'd been told I couldn't get a copy, and neither did she," Henderson wrote.
"I ended up with all my miles restored. All in all, it had taken just one week to resolve. That's pretty speedy, but I don't love all the hoops I had to jump through."
At the time of publication, American Airlines had not responded to TheStreet on a request for comment.
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