A dusty loyalty-programme dispute is still catching people out. Years ago, a number of American Airlines members were permanently banned from AAdvantage after repeatedly earning Citi credit card sign-up bonuses from mailed offers — offers the bank approved and paid out on. American's argument, made in court, was that even offers which didn't state a limit were subject to a once-every-48-months restriction, and that using an offer mailed to a spouse was off-limits too. The punishment wasn't just clawing back the bonuses: members lost their entire mile balances and were shown the door for life.
Here's where it gets messy. American used to have more than one US banking partner, and Barclays — which at one point held the old US Airways card portfolio — has at least once approved a new co-branded card for a previously banned person and opened them a fresh AAdvantage account. That member reportedly flew an award ticket successfully, only for American to shut the account down roughly two months later and confirm the ban still stood. Imagine spending on a card, booking a redemption, flying it — then finding out afterwards your miles were void all along.
Not every case ends the same way, though. One formerly banned member has apparently kept a new account alive for about nine months by using the four Admirals Club passes that come with American's premium Strata Elite card. The passes get deposited into an AAdvantage account, but the member has avoided actually parking any miles there — and so far, American hasn't pulled the plug.
That last detail exposes a genuine design problem for the airline. As American links benefits to its loyalty programme from cards that aren't co-branded, people who hold those cards need an AAdvantage account simply to receive their perks — even if they never earn a mile. The bar for what counts as "participating in the programme" has gotten blurrier, and enforcement so far seems inconsistent.
For regular travellers, the practical takeaways are fairly narrow but real. If you were caught up in the old Citi bonus purge, it may be worth checking whether a fresh account survives — some clearly do, at least for a while, and others have slipped through via Barclays card approvals. But the safe assumption is that American treats these bans as permanent, and a rug-pull after you've spent money on a card is a genuine risk. Anyone holding a Strata Elite card should also understand that the Admirals Club passes live inside an AAdvantage account, which is a strange place for your benefits to sit if your relationship with the airline is complicated. Mostly, this is a reminder that loyalty programme terms are enforced at the airline's discretion, not the bank's — and a bank's mistake in approving you doesn't protect your miles.
