Consumer complaint received 2020-01-20
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: MA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
Dear Sir / Madam, On Friday XX/XX/XXXX I learned that my XXXX XXXX AAdvantage frequent flyer account ( # XXXX ) had been 'locked ', meaning that I was unable to redeem miles from my account for award travel, or any other purpose. At this time, my frequent flyer account holds XXX, XXX Available award miles. At a valuation of 1 cent / mile ( which is what the Aadvantage program miles are valued at for tax purposes ), this translates to a corresponding value of {$270.00} for the award miles in my account. 

Upon calling in to the AAdvantage customer service phone number ( XXXX ), I learned that I was supposed to wait for an email message from XXXX XXXX Corporate Security, but was not informed why I could not access my award miles, or what the reason was for being denied access. It should be noted I had not ever engaged in activity expressly forbidden by the Aadvantage terms and conditions such as sale or barter of AAdvantage mileage. I have repeatedly called in to the AAdvantage customer service phone number but was never informed of what was going on. I was informed that XXXX XXXX Corporate Security was 'not customer facing ', which means that it is not possible to communicate with XXXX XXXX Corporate Security for an Aadvantage program member, despite what happened. 

I learned from online social media that many Aadvantage accounts that had award miles deposited from credit card signup bonuses were locked. In fact, the one thing that appears to be common between these accounts is that they all had mileage that was obtained through credit card signup bonuses. At least some of those accounts were terminated, meaning that all mileage earned over the lifetime of the account was forfeited. My Aadvantage account also contained mileage that was obtained through credit card signup bonuses. It should be noted that earning bonuses from Aadvantage program partners such as Citibank is not against the terms and conditions of the Aadvantage program. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from XXXX XXXX CorpSec team notifying me that my account has been permanently SHUT DOWN, meaning that I no longer have access to my XXXX points. On top of that, my flight tickets were cancelled for my trip to XXXX in XXXX of XXXX. This includes flights from XXXX -> XXXX -> XXXX -> XXXX -> XXXX, which is a total of XXXX XXXX points ; a cash value of {$4000.00}. 

I ask that full access to my Aadvantage frequent flyer account is restored, and my ability to redeem award miles for travel or any other purpose is restored without restrictions. I also ask that access will not again be restricted when no violation of the Aadvantage program terms and conditions took place. Alternatively, if my account can not be reinstated, then I would ask for a cash-value of the points that would have been in my account, which would be {$4200.00} ( XXXX points ). 

I thank you in advance for your kind assistance. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX P.S. apologies for formatting/spacing.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation