Are You “Reward Abuse” With an Airline Credit Card?

There are obvious risks involved in trying to play the credit card reward system. You could mess up your signup bonus calculations and end up in debt. Your credit score could be hurt. Your points may be discounted or card partners may swap places.

But these are mistakes. There is another risk that isn’t nearly as harmless: reward abuse.

Customers report that American Airlines and Citigroup are blocking accounts and canceling flights for customers who violate the AAdvantage program rules.

Here’s an example of this behavior from a Bloomberg report :

One problem is a practice that has long been banned: opening multiple accounts with America’s AAdvantage loyalty program using a fictitious name and email address, and then accepting a follow-up offer from Citigroup to issue an airline credit card. These online promotions are often accompanied by generous rewards of up to 70,000 miles.

A post in The Points Guy indicated that a recent promotional email could be a factor. There was no regular sign-up restriction in the inbox that blocks current Citi cardholders from receiving a sign-up bonus if they have opened a card in the past four years. And since, in all fairness, signup bonuses are the most attractive thing about most bonus credit cards, people would open up a new card to get points. The offer also clearly lacked redemption restrictions, allowing users to share their ad offer with others.

American and Citigroup told Bloomberg that they have not changed their policies and are always looking for violations.

If you have one or two bonus credit cards, it is unlikely that you will be suspected of violating your credit card or airline bonus program. But the more you try to, shall we say, hack the system, the higher your risk becomes. Gary Guthrie of ConsumerAffairs writes that using targeted links to get the same offer, using an offer targeted to someone else, and trying to open many cards in a short period of time are big red flags for card issuers. Starting a fake business ? Yes, it could come back and bite you.

If you are thinking of getting a (other) reward card, carefully consider the options that suit your needs, calculate the application time for the period when you can spend enough to reach the minimum for the sign up bonus, and that means follow the rules. You may not be flying first class with your pile of goggles anytime soon, but at least you don’t risk all of them being taken away.

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