On December 17, I received the following email from AwardWallet:
We’re writing to let you know that American Airlines has forced us to stop tracking your American Airlines account on AwardWallet. We are extremely disappointed in this decision. AwardWallet believes that you own your loyalty and travel data and that you have the right to control and share that data as you see fit.Unfortunately, we are not in a position to fight this demand. As of today, we have removed the following accounts from AwardWallet:
Not only was American Airlines not letting AwardWallet collect the information on AAdvantage accounts, they apparently were altogether banning the service from tracking account information.
American Airlines isn’t the first company to prevent AwardWallet from gathering information. Delta, United and Southwest prevent them from logging into your accounts to update your information, claiming it is against the terms of use of their websites. AwardWallet does the best to work around these restrictions (i.e., you can email your statements directly to an AwardWallet email account, forward account emails to them or send a screenshot).
However, that isn’t an option for American AAdvantage members:
Finally, you are probably wondering if AwardWallet will have the same workaround for American Airlines accounts as we have for Delta, United, and Southwest but unfortunately, at the moment we are not able to offer it to you.
This isn’t news as the split has been widely reported and universally received as yet another customer-unfriendly move by American Airlines’ management.
I thought it over and wondered why they would make this move now? What’s different from last month? What action might American Airlines be planning where it would be to their advantage to make it harder for loyalty members to track accounts?
The pieces suddenly fell into place.
I’ll bet that American is going to stop extending AAdvantage mile expiration.
Currently, American’s pause on mileage expiration is set to end in March 2022.
You’ve worked hard to earn your AAdvantage miles, and we recognize you may need more time than usual to keep them active. We’ve paused the expiration of miles through March 31, 2022. If your miles are scheduled to expire on or before March 31, 2022, they will now expire in April 2022, if there’s no additional activity in your account before then. You can find the expiration date of your miles in the Wallet section of your AAdvantage account.
American’s usual policy is that miles expire if there is no account activity for 18 months. Therefore, if you don’t have any activity in your account from October 1, 2020, you’ll forfeit your miles on April 1, 2022.
One way to maximize the number of expiring points would be to make it more difficult for members to know that their miles are expiring. AwardWallet sends notices to users alerting them of accounts that are due to expire in addition to tips on how to keep the account active.
Since American Airlines forced AwardWallet to delete all existing information, those members will not be getting an alert. To check your account expiration, you have to log into your AAdvantage account and check the “Wallet.”
I have no insight into what the people who run the AAdvantage program are thinking. I can only look at the moves they’re making and what that could mean down the road.
My advice is that if you’re not sure when your AAdvantage miles are expiring, check your account. If you’re set to expire on March 31, 2022, come up with a plan to have some account activity between now and then. Remember that some ways to earn miles, like shopping portals and dining programs, can take a while to post to your account, so no waiting until the last minute.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
6 comments
This isn’t about expiration, it’s about monetizing eyeballs and consumer data. They don’t get much upside out of Award Wallet accessing their site, so they figure cutting it off doesn’t cost them much (customers don’t count!). They’d rather members go to their website directly to learn their balances, and get marketed to. Short-sighted, sure, but simple.
But how many people go to check their account balance and then end up saying “Yeah, I remember I wanted to book that travel package!” I can see the appeal for the other airlines to drive traffic as their miles never expire but I can’t help but think if American was going to put this change into effect anyway, this was a perfect time for them to do it.
Gary is right. This is kind of a silly theory, because it ignores that 1) AAdvantage mileage expiration and Award Wallet coexisted peacefully for years before the pandemic, and; 2) Award Wallet’s user base is equal to maybe 1% of AAdvantage’s user base, and is also typically the most engaged portion of AA’s user base and are likely to be aware of their mileage expiration situation anyway.
Try again on this one.
But American’s been extending the 18-month expiration policy for the entire pandemic and there are more points expiring now than at any other time. Also, arguing that the 1% of American’s user base isn’t worth bothering about would also mean making a change that drives those same customers to AA’s website to check their balance is just as futile an effort.
Agree about this theory. A difficult access makes it easier for more miles to expire.
AwardWallet also changed their policy. You could add an account manually and enter the data (which I do for all my accounts). Trying do that now. AwardWallet will only allow accounts that they can access themselves. Maybe that is the reason Amercian stopped AwardWallet.