Reward Flight...Receive benefits without Airline Card?

[CarnivalCruiser32]

Hi there,

Newbie to airline miles/rewards travel and hoping some of you might have some knowledge on this! I opened an AAdvantage business credit card a while back and earned enough miles for a round-trip award flight for me + 3 companions for our cruise which was really exciting. I booked the tickets and paid the taxes/fees with my AAdvantage Credit Card and it has been ticketed - this was months ago. Unfortunately, in the time between booking that flight and now I've had to close the card. SO the question is: Will we loose all the card benefits associated for the flight because I no longer have the card when we fly? One of the companions is convinced that we'll still receive the one free checked bag per person because I had the card when the flight was booked, but I truly just don't have any idea how any of this works. Obviously, it would be great to still receive those perks for this flight but I don't want to just assume we will because it was booked when I still had the card. Since it was already ticketed with the information that I was a card holder does that make a difference?

all insight is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!!

[Voelfgar]

Only American Airlines can answer your question.

[thinfool]

Call AA.

[GeezerCouple]

8 hours ago, CarnivalCruiser32 said:

Hi there,

Newbie to airline miles/rewards travel and hoping some of you might have some knowledge on this! I opened an AAdvantage business credit card a while back and earned enough miles for a round-trip award flight for me + 3 companions for our cruise which was really exciting. I booked the tickets and paid the taxes/fees with my AAdvantage Credit Card and it has been ticketed - this was months ago. Unfortunately, in the time between booking that flight and now I've had to close the card. SO the question is: Will we loose all the card benefits associated for the flight because I no longer have the card when we fly? One of the companions is convinced that we'll still receive the one free checked bag per person because I had the card when the flight was booked, but I truly just don't have any idea how any of this works. Obviously, it would be great to still receive those perks for this flight but I don't want to just assume we will because it was booked when I still had the card. Since it was already ticketed with the information that I was a card holder does that make a difference?

all insight is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!!

 

Why did you "have to close" the card?

It's probably not a good idea at all, while you still have these outstanding points.  Yes, they are still outstanding.  You could cancel the tickets and re-bank the points for a rather small fee.  IF you now have to do that (someone gets sick, etc.), you might lose all of those points..  NOTE:  I do not know if this would happen, but it wouldn't surprise me.

 

If it was a high fee card, you could have changed it to a low fee card.

Was this a Citi-Card?

 

GC

[FlyerTalker]

From the AA website in regards to AAdvantage credit cards:

 

" If your credit card account is closed for any reason, these benefits will be cancelled. "

[terry&mike]

I would have waited until after the trip to cancel the card. Many people "churn" credit cards for the mileage and other sign up awards, and this is specifically prohibited by the card. If the card issuer feels that churning is afoot, they are not obligated to honor the perks. 

At this point, I'd just continue to check my reservation and see that it stays active. When you show up at the airport, if you have to pay for luggage, just pay for it and go forward. 

[purduemom1]

Here’s hoping that luggage is all you end up having to pay for!

[em-sk]

On 9/9/2019 at 1:34 PM, Voelfgar said:

Only American Airlines can answer your question.

 

You may very well discover the person you call does not know and they have to resource to tell them.  

 

There is what the rules say and then there is the reality your deal with some very complex computer systems that have been modified over decades.  On a couple of airlines I fly the policy is status when you fly, however the computer systems do not check status other than when a loyalty number is attached to the reservation.