TPG helped this reader recover 610,000 stolen American Airlines miles

The last trip Gail and Andy Goldberg planned together was supposed to be an exciting adventure to Brazil. Andy redeemed a whopping 610,000 American Airlines miles for round-trip business-class seats for their journey. They would fly from Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) to Sao Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) via Miami International Airport (MIA).

But Andy was later diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, forcing the Goldbergs to cancel their trip. American Airlines redeposited the miles into his account, and the couple hoped to be able to travel again after he recovered.

Sadly, though, Andy died several months later.

Gail says within 30 days of her husband’s death, a thief hacked into his AAdvantage account and stole all those American Airlines miles, but no one told her. So a year later, when she felt ready to travel again, she was shocked when she logged into his account and found the miles were gone.

After unsuccessfully pleading her case with American Airlines over the phone and via email, Goldberg asked TPG for help. She hoped we could guide her in this mission to reclaim the miles Andy earned as a loyal AAdvantage member.

However, this theft had happened over a year ago, and American Airlines has a strict 90-day reporting policy for stolen miles.

Goldberg faced another roadblock, too: According to the terms and conditions of the AAdvantage program, the miles weren’t even hers to reclaim.

This case is a cautionary one for anyone whose spouse or partner has died. It’s essential to act quickly and request a transfer of any unused loyalty points. If you don’t, thieves trolling obituary notices might just swoop in and steal the miles for themselves instead.

Here’s what happened to Gail Goldberg.

The trip of a lifetime

In early 2022, the Goldbergs realized they had a hoard of American Airlines miles to spend.

“Andy was a longtime AAdvantage member and earned some of those points through travel,” Gail Goldberg told me. “But primarily those American Airlines miles came through our use of a Citi AAdvantage Mastercard for nearly all of our credit card purchases through the years.” (Goldberg was an additional cardmember on her husband’s account.)

With pandemic-related travel restrictions finally subsiding, the couple began making plans for a trip to Brazil. Checking for points redemption availability on the American Airlines site, they were happy to see award tickets available on their preferred dates, albeit for a very large number of miles.

Redeeming the 610,000 AAdvantage miles for travel to South America was easy, and the Goldbergs soon had their confirmed business-class flights. They knew it was a lot of miles, but they had so many and wanted to take this trip so badly that it was worth it to them. Once the tickets were taken care of, they excitedly turned their attention to planning the rest of the adventure to Brazil.

Goldberg says it wasn’t long before all those plans collapsed.

“Andy was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in February [2022],” Goldberg explained. “I called American Airlines, canceled our flights and asked that the miles be returned to his account.”

A sympathetic American Airlines agent assured Goldberg that the miles had been redeposited and would be there when the couple was ready to travel again.

“I was very busy taking care of Andy and had little time to think about anything else,” Goldberg told me. “I assumed the miles were safe.”

The AAdvantage miles were indeed back in Andy’s account, but not for long.

What will happen to all those American Airlines miles?

After Andy lost his battle with cancer, Goldberg was faced with closing all his accounts — including the Citi AAdvantage Mastercard. That’s when she started thinking about all those miles the couple had earned using the credit card.

“I called American Airlines and told the agent that Andy had died and asked how to transfer the miles,” Goldberg says. “The employee told me there was no need to transfer the miles. I could just use them when I was ready to take a trip again.”

That was terrible advice, but having never been in such a situation, Goldberg didn’t know it. She had more important things to focus on and was simply relieved to have one less thing to worry about.

It would be an entire year before Goldberg learned just how bad the advice she received from the unidentified American Airlines agent was.

Ready to travel again but the miles were gone

In the fall of 2023, one year after her husband’s death, Goldberg began to feel ready to travel again. Her mind turned to all those American Airlines miles she believed were still sitting in Andy’s dormant account.

“I was hoping to take the trip we had needed to cancel as a way to heal a little from his loss,” Goldberg explained to me.

But when she signed into Andy’s AAdvantage account for the first time since shortly after his death, Goldberg got a shock. The miles were gone.

She quickly contacted American Airlines customer service and asked what had happened. That’s when Goldberg got another surprise.

“They said someone had removed all the miles from the AAdvantage account in November,” Goldberg recalled. “That was just a few weeks after Andy had died. I would guess that hackers follow obituaries and target those individuals’ accounts as easy pickings.”

Initially, Goldberg assumed that American Airlines would be as shocked as she was and quickly replace the miles. Instead, she says that multiple agents reiterated the rules of the AAdvantage program: Stolen miles must be reported within 90 days of the theft.

When Goldberg told the agent in the fraud department that she had been assured that Andy’s miles were safe in his account and had no reason to believe they weren’t, the employee told her that American Airlines had sent an alert to Andy’s email address.

“That was particularly cruel because by the time the hacker had stolen Andy’s miles, he was already dead. It’s pretty hard for a person who is dead to answer an email. That was an unattended email address. I trusted the AA personnel with whom I spoke [about the safety of Andy’s account], and that was my mistake.”

After Goldberg had unsuccessfully escalated her request for the return of the miles from the customer service level to the supervisory level and finally the fraud department, she sent a plea for guidance to TPG.

Handling your late spouse’s American Airlines miles

The American Airlines AAdvantage program terms say that your frequent flyer miles technically aren’t your property. When you die, your miles are subject to deletion by the airline.

The American Airlines contract of carriage states: “Except as otherwise explained below, mileage credit is not transferable and may not be combined among AAdvantage members, their estates, successors, or assigns. Accrued mileage credit and award tickets do not constitute property of the member. Neither accrued mileage, nor award tickets, nor status, nor upgrades are transferable by the member (i) upon death, (ii) as part of a domestic relations matter, or (iii) otherwise by operation of law.”

However, American Airlines typically allows the transfer of the balance of an AAdvantage account to a spouse or partner after the member’s death. That is, as long as the request is made in a timely manner and the spouse or partner follows these specific steps:

• Inform American Airlines of the death of the AAdvantage member.
• Fill out an affidavit which will attest to your relationship to the decedent.
• Provide American Airlines with a copy of the death certificate.

Over the years, I have not seen an American Airlines AAdvantage member’s miles transfer request rejected after following those steps.

But Goldberg had received bad advice when she initially called American Airlines for guidance. That led her to inadvertently leave Andy’s account vulnerable to hackers, who soon took advantage of the situation.

How to officially report stolen miles or credit to American Airlines

When Goldberg’s request for assistance came via email, I knew she had a tough road ahead. Not only was she far beyond the timeframe for asking for a transfer of her husband’s American Airlines miles into her AAdvantage account, but the miles had been stolen long ago.

American Airlines does consider requests to reinstate stolen miles and travel credits, but again, there are steps that the AAdvantage member must take.

• Report the theft of the miles or travel credit within 90 days.
• File an official police report.
• Provide this information to corporate security at American Airlines.

But none of that had happened in Goldberg’s case. Her request to have the miles reinstated and transferred into her own account had been routed to multiple agents, supervisors and finally the fraud department, where she received the same response: The airline’s official terms and conditions would not allow the miles to be reinstated.

Despite all this, I thought American Airlines might bend its rules in her case because she had been given incorrect information at the outset of this situation, which ultimately led to the theft of her miles.

For her part, Goldberg was determined to get back those miles and wanted to be steered in the right direction.

I explained that she would need to file a police report about the theft of the miles. Of course, the authorities aren’t likely to investigate such a crime, but this is a required step in the process. The security team at American Airlines does the investigation after the police report is received.

Next, she would need to send the report to American Airlines’ Security and Fraud department or have it transmitted through customer service.

This frequent flyer persisted … and got the miles back

Consumers often balk when I share the steps to retrieving their stolen American Airlines miles, which include the critical element of filing an official police report.

What they fail to realize is that hackers are committing a crime when they break into a frequent flyer account and steal the miles. If you are a victim of a crime you must report it to the authorities, and even though the police department will probably not take action on your complaint, the American Airlines fraud department will investigate.

If you want your miles back, then you must file the police report.

In fact, it turns out that the lack of a police report was all that stood between Gail and those 610,000 AAdvantage miles.

Goldberg filed a police report the day after we spoke. But then she hit another bump in the road when that report took about 30 days to become available to her. Finally, she was able to forward the official document to American Airlines, and within 24 hours, her mission was successfully accomplished.

“Hi, Michelle. It took a month to get the police report from Howard County, but only one day after I submitted it to the customer service representative with whom I’d been corresponding from the time my request was acknowledged to warrant an exception to the airline’s 3-month rule, I heard back that the miles were restored and would be moved into my account within 7 to 10 days.”

And just as promised, American Airlines deposited the 610,000 miles that had been missing directly into Goldberg’s account within the week. She was thrilled and offered a few words of wisdom she would like our readers to heed.

“I would stress — and this applies to all administrative issues that widows and widowers face — how important it is to be persistent. If one person doesn’t give you the response you’re hoping for, talk to another … and another … and another, if need be. Along the way, you’re likely to find someone with a heart.”

I couldn’t agree with Goldberg more. As a consumer advocate, I frequently advise people not to give up on a problem if they know they’re right. Keep working your way up that customer service ladder, and you’re bound to find a sympathetic ear.

In fact, if you need assistance finding that sympathetic person, my advocacy organization, Consumer Rescue, can help. We provide a free customer service and executive contact finder for any consumer struggling to find the right person within a company to ask for assistance.

Bottom line

While inheriting your spouse’s or partner’s accrued miles is never guaranteed, you can increase your chances of not forfeiting what’s left in their account with a few simple steps.

• Never leave a loyalty account dormant.
• Change the contact email to yours as soon as possible.
• Change the password.
• Never overlook an email from your loyalty program.
• Make a formal request to the loyalty program to transfer the points to your own account.

And of course, if you run into any problems, send your request for help to ombudsman@thepointsguy.com and I’ll be happy to help you, too.