She gets off the phone and says "OK, I got it!" I asked what she meant and she said she'd booked the ticket and it was on it's way... Now we don't have the same last name. Nor do we share phones, and her number is nowhere close to mine which AA might have on file, she doesn't know my PIN #. So, my question is, is this a lapse by one agent, or is this policy or what? With DL I am pretty sure you cannot order awards without your PIN #. BTW, I checked my AA statement online and they have indeed deducted the miles for this ticket. It seems to me that this system would lend itself to abuse. What if my wife booked a first class round trip to europe without my permission and I found out about it after she'd flown? What if my assistant pretended to be my wife and did the same? Isn't the point of the PIN numbers to prevent this kind of thing? I assume AA would be liable for these miles if someone did claim tickets wothout the member's permission?
But I don't have millions of miles racked up either. Yet.
I would also be interested to know if anyone has had someone try to access and use their account for awards, etc. It seems that if this were anything near a common occurance, AA would have a password on all accounts.
$50 is a cheap price to pay for peace of mind...
If you have an issue where you feel someone who may have access to your account number and is familar with your personal activity, and you are nervous about the situation, the $50.00 fee is cheap insurance.
If you do obtain a password, you will need to give it each time you contact reservations, customer service, executive desk etc. They do not have an override to bypass the password even if you convince them you are who you say you are. Passworded accounts are also prohibited from having access to their web site account (at this time). There is a lot of discussion that a PIN and PW are the same thing. They have the same intent, but are separate at this time. I believe one day it will be one element.
If you feel your account is threatened, get a password. If not, let it go. Another thing you might consider is to have your account number changed and migrate all your activity to new account, and close the old account. This would be free. It depends on your own circumstance.
[This message has been edited by Island (edited 02-12-2001).]
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