Joel Hayes

Complaint 

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BEFORE THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF AVIATION ENFORCEMENT AND PROCEEDINGS

WASHINGTON, D.C.

------------------------------------------------------ ) 

) 

Joel Hayes, ) 

 third-party complainant ) 

) 

v. ) Docket DOT-OST-2014-____ 

) 

American Airlines, Inc. ) 

) 

------------------------------------------------------ ) 

COMPLAINT OF JOEL HAYES

Comments with respect to this document should be addressed to: 

Joel Hayes

E-mail: 

Dated: May 19, 2014 
Joel Hayes

Complaint 

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BEFORE THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF AVIATION ENFORCEMENT AND PROCEEDINGS

WASHINGTON, D.C.

--------------------------------------------------------------- ) 

) 

Joel Hayes, ) 

 third-party complainant ) 

) 

v. ) Docket DOT-OST-2014-____ 

) 

American Airlines, Inc. ) 

) 

--------------------------------------------------------------- ) 

COMPLAINT OF JOEL HAYES

1. This complaint arises out of American Airlines falsely accusing me of 

“creat[ing] fictitious reservations” purportedly “to block premium seats for the sole 

purpose of obtaining AAdvantage upgrades.” Based on these false accusations, 

American penalized my AAdvantage account by 60,000 miles and denied my ability to 

use AAdvantage miles consistent with the terms and conditions of the AAdvantage 

program. 

2. In fact I did not take steps to create fictitious reservations, and I certainly 

took no actions with the intent of blocking others from buying seats. Rather, I used 

American’s ordinary fare quote and seat viewing systems to see seats on a flight. But I 

never put any such records on hold. As best I can tell, such reservations were created

only due to design flaws in American’s own system, flaws that were unknown to me, that 

are unknown to reasonable consumers, and for which I should not be held responsible. 
Joel Hayes

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I. Facts

3. In October 2013 I booked March 2014 leisure travel AUS-DFW-LHRDFW-AUS with all segments on American. I requested upgrades using AAdvantage 

miles and cash copayment. My requests were waitlisted.

4. Approximately two weeks after I purchased the ticket, my return flight 

upgrade cleared. 

5. As my outbound flights drew nearer, I began wonder whether my 

outbound flight upgrade would clear (which of course would affect my comfort during 

the journey, the restfulness of my journey, and my activities immediately upon arrival). 

While I have flown Internationally twice before in the last few years, this was my first 

chance to actually have an upgrade to Business on an International flight. I did not want 

to call American staff repeatedly, as that would take their time and impose a cost on 

American. Instead, I sought to look at the seatmap of the Business cabin to see what 

seats were available. At least once per day, and sometimes more than once per day, I 

used the following procedure: 

a. Browse to www.aa.com, and enter my specified origin, destination, and dates. 

See Attachment 1.A.1

b. Select the flights on which I sought to check upgrades, and specify business 

class transport. See Attachment 1.B.

c. Press Continue (usually without logging in to my AAdvantage account, since 

that was described as “Optional”). See Attachment 1.C. 

 

1 The screenshots show future travel on an arbitrarily-selected date. When I performed this procedure, I 

used the dates of my March 2014 trip.
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d. Enter placeholder passenger details.

2

 Press Continue. See Attachment 1.D 

and 1.E. 

e. See the seatmap, and count available seats in my desired upgraded cabin. See 

Attachment 1.F. 

6. In no case did I ever instruct that AA put any placeholder reservations on 

hold, nor did I ever otherwise request that AA put any reservation on hold. I note that 

after a passenger finishes the seatmap screen (shown in in Attachment 1.F), the passenger 

can proceed to a final booking screen (shown in 1.G) where the passenger may pay for 

the ticket or choose an option labeled “Free 24 Hour Hold.” I am confident that I never 

chose the option for “hold” in any instance where I was checking upgrade availability. 

Indeed, I believe I rarely or never proceeded from the seatmap screen (1.F) to the final 

booking confirmation screen (1.G) where AA offers the hold function. 

II. Rationale for My Use of the Process Detailed in Paragraph 5 

7. I credit that the process detailed in paragraph 5 requires several steps. But 

I was anxious to know whether my upgrade would clear based on all the great things I 

had heard about business class (where I have [rarely] been able to travel) and the comfort 

and rest that would provide on a long trip. After a bit of practice, I could perform the 

process quite quickly (well under a minute), and I didn’t mind that effort, given my 

excitement about the trip.

8. Initially I had expected that I’d be able to use the My Reservations feature 

to see whether my upgrade was likely to clear, my position on the waitlist, or other 

information about availability in the desired cabin. But when I looked on AA.COM, I 

 

2 I entered gibberish “ASDF-type” name and details for the reasons described in Section II. At least once, I 

tried pressing “Show Details” in hopes of a direct link or other command to see a seatmap, but no such

function was available there.
Joel Hayes

Complaint 

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found none of this information. The seatmap linked from my reservation was only a 

seatmap for the cabin in which I was ticketed and confirmed (coach), which gave me no 

information about upgrade availability. 

9. I used a placeholder passenger, rather than logging in to AA.COM, 

because when I logged into AA.COM and attempted to proceed with the procedure 

detailed in paragraph 5, I received an error message indicating that there was a duplicate 

booking. By entering a placeholder passenger, I was able to see the desired business 

class seatmap despite being already ticketed in coach.

10. At the time when I performed the process detailed in paragraph 5, I was 

not aware that AA.COM provides a View Available Seats function. (I am now aware of 

that function, and I see that it offers a faster means to access the same seatmap 

information I obtained. If I seek information about upgrade seating availability in the 

future, I’d surely use View Available Seats instead.) 

III. American’s Allegations and My Attempts to Communicate with American

11. The day before my departure, I found that I was unable to access my AAA 

account to check on the upgrade or check in to my flight. I called the American Platinum 

Desk but did not receive useful information. I later managed to reach someone who said 

that his boss “Valerie” would email me. I was subsequently able to see my account, but 

60,000 miles were removed as “ADV Adjust Award” leaving me with just 3,000 miles

left. Suspecting that someone had hacked my American account, I called my bank as 

well—worried that my passwords might have been compromised. 

12. Later that afternoon, I received an email from Valerie Durant of American

Corporate Security. See Attachment 2. Ms. Durant stated that “Corporate Security has 
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detected ... fictitious bookings on AA50 from Dallas/Ft. Worth to London/Heathrow on 

21MAR.” She continued: “Our investigation indicates that you or someone acting on 

your behalf, created the fictitious reservations for First and Business Class seats on flights 

in which you are ticketed in coach class and upgrades were desired. These First and 

Business class bookings were systematically booked from January 8, 2014 to today 

(March 20, 2014) to block premium seats for the sole purpose of obtaining AAdvantage 

upgrades.” She listed 35 such reservations over that 75-day period. She said “these 

fictitious bookings [are] a clear violation of the AA.COM Site Usage and General 

AAdvantage Program Conditions provisions” because they are “false reservations” and 

“fraud, misrepresentation, abuse, or any other violation of ... applicable rules, including 

but not limited to the conditions of carriage, which specifically prohibit creating bookings 

to hold or block seats for the purpose of obtaining a seat that may not otherwise be 

available.”

13. I immediately replied to Ms. Durant to alert her to her error. In short, I 

explained: “I was only trying to see how many seats were still available in business.” I 

received no reply. See Attachment 3.

14. I traveled in coach on AUS-DFW-LHR. Ms. Durant’s message indicated 

that I would not be permitted to utilize any upgrade on AUS-DFW-LHR, and so I did not 

attempt to do so. 

15. After completing my journey, I wrote to American Customer Service 

(April 9, April 14) and [received no reply]. See Attachment 4.

16. On April 22, I again wrote to Ms. Durant, reiterating her errors and urging 

her both to investigate further and to reply. She did not reply. See Attachment 5. 
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17. On April 28, I again wrote to Ms. Durant, suggesting that the 60,000 mile 

penalty—which I still claimed was improper—should be donated to charity, not retained 

by American. Ms. Durant replied to decline. See Attachment 6. 

IV. American’s Allegations Are Mistaken

18. A proper inquiry will reveal that the facts are as I allege in Section I. 

Crucially, I never activated the AA.COM “hold” function to request that any itineraries

be placed on hold—I never clicked that button, and in most or all instances I never even 

proceeded from the seatmap (Attachment 1.F) to the subsequent screen where the “Hold” 

option is listed (Attachment 1.G). Moreover, AA.COM gave zero indication that I had 

placed any reservations on hold. For example, I never received any email confirmation 

indicating an itinerary had been placed on hold or a reservation had been created. Nor 

did the AA.COM site show me the hold confirmation screen that gives the record locator 

of a reservation placed on hold and the deadline for ticketing. 

19. Ms. Durant is also mistaken in her allegations about my intent. Ms. 

Durant says I “created ... fictitious reservations for First and Business Class seats” but in 

fact I only viewed the seatmap, and I never pressed a “Hold” button or took any other act 

that a reasonable person would recognize as creating a reservation. Ms. Durant says that 

I created fake reservations “to block premium seats for the sole purpose of obtaining 

AAdvantage upgrades,” but this allegation is also false in that 1) I did not request the 

creation of any reservation, and 2) my purpose was only to view availability to assess my 

upgrade prospects. Ms. Durant seems to be content to infer my intend from my supposed 

conduct, but her incorrect information about my conduct led her to an incorrect 

conclusion about my intent. 
Joel Hayes

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20. The ordinary dictionary definition of relevant terms confirms the error of 

Ms. Durant’s accusations. The gravamen of Ms. Durant’s message is that I made 

“fictitious bookings”, “bookings,” “Business Class bookings”, “fictitious reservations”, 

“First and Business Class bookings,” “systematically booked,” “fictitious bookings,” 

“false reservations,” and “bookings” (sequential quotes form her message). So far as I 

know, the American Conditions of Carriage, Tariff, and other documents do not define 

the terms “booking” or “reservation,” so I look to an ordinary dictionary. MerriamWebster: 

booking: an arrangement to have something (such as a room) held for your use at 

a later time

reservation: an arrangement to have something (such as a room, table, or seat) 

held for your use at a later time

I made no such “arrangement” because I never requested that anything be held for my 

use. Indeed, AA.COM has a clearly-labeled function to put a reservation on hold (the 

“Free 24 Hour Hold” button), but I specifically did not activate that option. 

21. On information and belief, based on facts now known to me but not 

known to me at the time, American sometimes creates some kind of temporary 

reservation as a passenger browses the AA.COM site, even if the passenger never presses 

the Hold button to ask that an itinerary be placed on hold. I do not know what customer 

activities cause American to create such a temporary reservation, but I gather this must 

have occurred as I clicked through to view the seat map.

22. To confirm that AA.COM creates temporary reservations even when a 

passenger only takes the steps described in paragraph 5 (without pressing any “Hold” 

button or similar), I repeated the steps listed in paragraph 5 while logged in to AA.COM 

with my AAdvantage account. Immediately after completing those steps, I clicked on 
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Plan Travel – My Trips. I saw a new trip listed in the My Trips screen, with a departure 

date and city pairs matching what I had just searched for. Crucially, the new trip was 

already shown as “Canceled.” When I clicked the new trip shown in My Trips, no flights 

were listed and the resulting page again stated that the trip was “Canceled.” 

23. The test described in paragraph 22 entailed just a few seconds of gap 

between my viewing the seatmap and my seeing the itinerary labeled as “Canceled.” On 

information and belief, clicking to any other page in AA.COM is sufficient to cause 

AA.COM to release the temporary reservation and mark it as “Canceled.” I expect that 

there is also some sort of timeout, perhaps a predetermined number of seconds or 

minutes, if a user leaves AA.COM from the seatmap screen without clicking anything 

else. Based on this testing, I expect that the AA.COM site similarly made only very brief 

temporary reservations as I performed the procedure described in paragraph 5. Ms. 

Durant alleges that my actions were intended “to hold or block seats”—but if the 

automatically-created temporary reservations existed for just a few seconds each 

(consistent with my testing), the “hold or block” was exceptionally brief and 

correspondingly less likely to impede the sale of those seats to anyone else.

24. Ms. Durant cites the AA.COM Site Usage rules, General AAdvantage 

Program Conditions, and Conditions of Carriage, all of which prohibit “Fictitious, 

Fraudulent or Abusive and Duplicate or Impossible/Illogical reservations” (or similar). 

But these prohibitions all speak to behavior a passenger in fact intends to perform. For 

example, the COC prohibits that “Duplicate or impossible/illogical American Airlines 

bookings”—but I never made any “bookings” because I never clicked to request that any 

itineraries be placed on hold. 
Joel Hayes

Complaint 

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25. I recognize that it may seem preposterous that AA.COM creates a 

reservation even when a passenger does not press any button to request that a reservation 

be created. I was shocked also. But such illogical behavior is particularly plausible in 

light of other significant defects known to occur on AA.COM including presenting fare 

quotes with arithmetic errors (reporting subtotal and tax that do not actually add up to the 

listed total), presenting multiple inconsistent prices on a single screen, and misstating 

“tax” mere days after American under oath promised DOT that it would never again 

make that misrepresentation. My allegations may be strange, but they are entirely 

plausible in light of these other AA.COM design flaws. Those defects are American’s 

fault, not mine. American errs in penalizing me for its own programming blunders. 

V. American’s Conduct is Arbitrary and Unfair

26. American’s AAdvantage Terms purport to let American forfeit all of a 

member’s award tickets, cancel a member’s an account, and eject a member from future 

participation in AAdvantage for any reason or no reason. In general I do not dispute that 

it is American’s right to take such acts if it so chooses. But I question whether American 

is permitted to take such acts for an improper reason or, as here, a mistaken reason.

27. American could have designed its web site so that a passenger can 

consider a booking and view seating without unintentionally creating a temporary 

reservation. Alternatively, American could warn passengers that viewing seating has the 

same effect as placing a booking on hold, and will be viewed as such. Instead, American 

chooses to allow these defects and deficiencies in its web site, and not to warn passengers 

of the apparent consequences. That concealed design flaw is not proper grounds to 

penalize a customer.
Joel Hayes

Complaint 

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28. At any time, American staff could have notified me that they would prefer 

that I not view seatmaps in the way that I was doing, and I would immediately have 

ceased doing so (or used another procedure per their instructions). 

29. On information and belief, as presented in paragraph 21, the reservations 

at issue existed for just seconds or, at most, minutes each. Such brief reservations had a 

correspondingly small effect on American. The proposed penalty is grossly 

disproportional to any harm actually suffered by American. (The penalty is also 

improper because the proximate cause of the harm is American’s ill-advised design of 

AA.COM, including the automatic creation of reservations without a passenger request.) 

30. I understand that the DOT prohibits both “unfair” and “deceptive” 

practices by airlines. See 49 USC 41712(a). I do not know whether the DOT has defined 

the full contours of what constitutes “unfair” and “deceptive” conduct. But the FTC 

offers a richer definition, including a three-part test for “unfair” consumer injury: a 

consumer injury is legally “unfair,” to the FTC, if the injury is 1) substantial; 2) is not 

outweighed by any countervailing benefits to consumers or competition; and 3) is an 

injury that consumers themselves could not reasonably have avoided. I believe 

American’s conduct here fully satisfies those tests. As a result of American’s conduct, I 

have been deprived of use of 60,000 miles and deprived of the ability to redeem a portion 

of those miles on my recent AUS-DFW-LHR segment (a redemption which was 

permitted by AAdvantage rules, and a redemption that I would have highly valued). 

There is no countervailing benefit to consumers from American designing its site in this 

way or refusing to consider the possibility of its error. I could not have avoided this error 

since nothing on the AA.COM site warns consumers not to use the site in the way I did. 
Joel Hayes

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31. The FTC’s characterization of “deceptive” conduct is also squarely on 

point. The FTC says it “find[s] deception if there is a representation, omission or practice 

that is likely to mislead the consumer acting reasonably in the circumstances, to the 

consumer's detriment.” Here, American fails to tell consumers that browsing its booking 

tool constitutes making a reservation (at least for purposes of American’s prohibition on 

speculative reservations) even when the consumer never presses any “Hold” button or 

activates any similar function to put an itinerary on hold. A consumer acting reasonably 

in the circumstances would have no reason to suspect that American is creating such 

reservations or that American may penalize consumers for this routine activity. 

Consumers suffer significant detriments from American’s subsequent penalties, including 

loss of thousands of miles earned over a multi-year period. 

32. American makes itself the judge, jury, and executioner of all alleged 

malfeasance in the AAdvantage program. Perhaps that is permissible in general, but in 

my case—with this remarkable design flaw on AA.COM, and with American’s false 

allegations of conduct I did not engage in—I believe American’s actions are far out of 

line.

33. I ask that the Department of Transportation: 

(1) Exercise its authority under 49 USC 41712 to open an investigation of 

American Airlines for having engaged in, and continuing to engage in, 

the unfair or deceptive practices described above;

(2) Order American Airlines to provide to the DOT and to me all notes, 

PNR annotations, web site logs, call recordings, and other records 
Joel Hayes

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prepared by its systems and its staff in the course of my travel and 

their investigation; 

(3) Order American Airlines to identify other passengers similarly 

situated, including those whose accounts have been closed or 

penalized for the same or similar reasons, and including those who 

complained of improper account closure or penalty; 

(4) Order American Airlines to provide heightened and remedial training 

to all “corporate security” and “revenue protection” staff, including 

training in the possibility of error or design flaws in American systems 

that could lead their investigations to incorrect results, the need to 

consider passengers’ defenses, and the need to reply to passengers who 

dispute American’s allegations; and

(5) Impose appropriate civil penalties on American Airlines.

Respectfully submitted, 

/s/

Joel Hayes
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Attachment 1.A 

Attachment 1.B 
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Attachment 1.C 

Attachment 1.D
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Attachment 1.E 

Attachment 1.F 
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Attachment 1.G (with red box marking the “24 Hour Hold” option I never clicked) 
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Attachment 2

Date: March 20, 2014 

Subject: American Airlines Matter #

Dear Mr. Hayes,

My name is Valerie Durant and I am an analyst with American Airlines.

One of my responsibilities is investigating potential violations of AA.Com Site Usage 

and General AAdvantage® Program Conditions provisions. 

I would like to alert you that AAdvantage account # was suspended today 

because Corporate Security has detected the fictitious bookings on AA50 from Dallas/Ft. 

Worth to London/Heathrow on 

21MAR. All of the bookings were Business Class bookings, and some of them also 

included First Class seats from Austin to Dallas/Ft. Worth.
Joel Hayes

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Our investigation indicates that you or someone acting on your behalf, created the 

fictitious reservations for First and Business Class seats on flights in which you are 

ticketed in coach class and upgrades were desired.

These First and Business class bookings were systematically booked from January 8, 

2014 to today (March 20, 2014) to block premium seats for the sole purpose of obtaining 

AAdvantage upgrades. The last one way Business Class booking on AA 50 Friday from 

DFW-LHR was created at 3:24pm CT today. The base value for this seat (as booked) is 

$7,491.00. 

The creation of these fictitious bookings is a clear violation of the AA.Com Site Usage 

and General AAdvantage® Program Conditions provisions. The AA.Com Site Usage 

agreement clearly prohibits the use of the website to book false reservations. In addition, 

the General AAdvantage® Program Conditions prohibit, among other things, fraud, 

misrepresentation, abuse, or any other violation of the airline’s applicable rules, including 

but not limited to the conditions of carriage, which specifically prohibit creating bookings 

to hold or block seats for the purpose of obtaining a seat that may not otherwise be 

available.

In lieu of termination, AAdvantage account # has been assessed a penalty of 

60,000 miles. Please note that you will not be able to utilize any upgrade products on 

your outbound from AUS-DFW-LHR on Friday. Your return upgrade on March 29 will 

remain intact.

The restriction on AAdvantage account # has been released, and you will have 

access effective immediately. Please note that any future violations of the General 

AAdvantage Program Conditions or AA.com site usage agreement may result in the 

immediate termination of your AAdvantage membership benefits.

Mr. Hayes, we value your business and years of loyalty to American Airlines. We would 

like nothing more than to continue to reward you for your business and loyalty for many 

years to come. However, in return, we must insist that you adhere to the guidelines of our 

program. We trust you will agree that participating in the AAdvantage program is worth 

it.

Regards,

Valerie Durant

American Airlines Corporate Security

Revenue Protection Analyst
Joel Hayes

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Attachment 3

Date: March 20, 2014 

Dear Ms. Durant--- 

First, let me apologize and thank for clearing for me what happened today. I need to 

please clarify that you were taking me for smarter than I actually am regarding 'blocking 

seats' for the upgrades...? I was only trying to see how many seats were still available in 

business because I was excited about the chance for the upgrade and would check to see 

how it looked. I honestly had no idea I was violating any terms of service or doing 

anything wrong- or I would have never done so. 

I'm a good guy, who was just excited about his vacation trip, and the chance for an 

outbound upgrade- I wouldn't even know how to block seats or how you were referring to 

it being done :/ 

My first intent with the letter is to apologize for any inconvenience or difficulties created

on AA's side- that was the last of my intentions. Again, I was only excited about a 

possibility of being upgraded, I had no idea I was violating anything, or doing something 

'wrong' - I never intentionally would have. 

I would also ask regarding the 60,000 miles taken away-- I understand that you need to 

do what you need to do on your end. I'm just asking is there any leeway on it? Again, I'm 

a good guy who had no idea what I apparently was messing up with this. 

I appreciate you reading this- and, again, I'm sorry for whatever mishaps I created on 

your end. None of them were intentional or knowing - just a guy trying to see how it 

looks for a chance at an upgrade. 

Sincerely, 

Joel Hayes
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Attachment 4

Sent April 9, 2014 to AA Customer Service via AA.COM 

I'm reaching out regarding a situation that occurred on March 20th, not as a complaint but 

in an attempt to ask for help/discussion on what occurred- My account was blocked for 

most of that day (I thought identity theft and panicked). Later that day I received an email 

from an AA Corporate Security Revenue Protection Analyst that accused me of "seat 

blocking" in an attempt to gain an upgrade on my flight from DFW to LHR. She listed 

examples going back to October. What I had been doing (and many others do, as I found 

out in blogging trying to understand all of this) was to sign in with an ASDF name to 

check open seats in the next cabin class just to see what my chances were for the upgrade. 

I never put a HOLD on any of these, nor did I realize this effected the AA system in any 

way. I was deducted 60,000 miles as a "punishment" in "leiu of simply closing my AA 

account." I wrote back a very humble response/apology, stating the above and that I am 

not smart enough to figure out how to seat block, and also not 'dumb' enough to ever even 

try. I never received a response. I'm a good guy, who had no clue on any of this, and feel 

what happened was tremendously unfair- it's become a matter of pride/dignity. I need to 

mention that MANY others from blog discussions have been doing the same to check 

upgrade availability are clueless that it violates TOS, or creates any issues. I would truly 

appreciate a response, and value your reading this. Thank You. 

Sent April 14, 2014 to AA Customer Service via AA.COM 

I'm reaching out a second time, now, regarding a situation on March 20th- not as a 

complaint but in an attempt to ask for help/discussion on what occurred- My account was 

blocked for most of that day (I thought identity theft and panicked). Later that day I 

received an email from an AA Corporate Security Revenue Protection Analyst that 

accused me of "seat blocking" in an attempt to gain an upgrade on my flight from DFW 

to LHR. She listed examples going back to October. What I had been doing (and many 

others do, as I found out in blogging trying to understand all of this) was to sign in with 

an ASDF name to check open seats in the next cabin class just to see what my chances 

were for the upgrade. I never put a HOLD on any of these, nor did I realize this effected 

the AA system in any way. I was deducted 60,000 miles as a "punishment" in "leiu of 

simply closing my AA account." I wrote back a very humble response/apology, stating 

the above and my confusion. I never received a response. I'm a good guy, who had no 

clue on any of this, and feel what happened was tremendously unfair- it's become a 

matter of integrity/dignity. I need to mention that MANY others from blog discussions 

have been doing the same to check upgrade availability and are clueless that it violates 

TOS, or creates any issues. I would truly appreciate a response, and value your reading 

this. Thank You. 
Joel Hayes

Complaint 

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Attachment 5

Sent April 22, 2014 

Dear Ms. Durant, 

I'm just trying to reach out to you on last time on your above email from March 20th. 

For me, the above isn't simply about the 60,000 miles, it's a matter of integrity and pride. 

I simply view you as someone doing their job and acting in the manner you see 

appropriate, without judgement on yourself or your character - but what's been said and 

done to me is a judgement on myself and my character. 

I can only reiterate that what happened caught me completely by shock - and it's why I'm 

still trying to follow up on this, because it was all unintentional and unknowing on my 

end. I've posted to several of the larger airline blogs trying to understand what you 

believed I was attempting to do and how it was even possible. 

You should know that the responses on these were that a great deal of people do the same 

thing that I was, just checking to see what the chances for an upgrade are - without a clue 

that it somehow affects AA's system or violates any TOS, and many of these are longterm Platinum/Executive flyers. Again - if I had even had a clue that was the case, I never 

would have. I suppose this helps everyone on those blogs to be the wiser, now, but I still 

feel like I've been hit out of left field by all of this. 

I never once put a Hold on any of those seats - if I had done something like that, then I 

would definitely have thought that I was doing something wrong. I'm also not sure on 

why, from your point of view, I would have been trying to block seats all the way back in 

October (per your attachment) when I first purchased the ticket (and was, again, just 

trying to see the chances of upgrades at the time), or how I would think names like ASDF 

would somehow be fooling anyone if I truly were attempting to do so. 

I won't take up more of your time- but I just need to reiterate that you've come after an 

unknowing person with all of this- and if I had simply gotten an email or a call letting me 

know what was occurring and how it was perceived on AA's side, it would have solved 

everything and I'd have at least known upfront and could have shared that information 

with others. The fact that I had to research to find out how what I was doing might even 

be affecting AA's system says something to me. 

I would truly appreciate a response, and value your reading this. 

Sincerely, 

Joel Hayes 
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Attachment 6

Subject: AA Make-A-Wish

Date: April 28, 2014 

ValerieWould you be willing to donate the 60,000 miles that you took to the AA Make-A-Wish 

Program?

That way, you've done what you need to in still having taken the miles from me, but at 

least I can know that something Good came out of all this. 

Could you please at least do this? 

Sincerely,

Joel

Subject: RE: AA Make-A-Wish

Date: April 29, 2014 

Hello Mr. Hayes,

Thank you for your response. If you would like to donate miles to the Make-A-Wish 

program from your remaining miles, you are welcome to do so, but it will not be possible 

to utilize the miles penalized.

Regards,

Valerie Durant

Corporate Security
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Certificate of Service

I hereby certify that I have, this 19th day of May, 2014 caused a copy of the foregoing 

Complaint to be served by electronic mail on the following persons: 

Robert Silverberg, Esq. rsilverberg@sgbdc.com 

Robert Gorman, Esq. robert.gorman@dot.gov 

 /s/

 _____________________ 

 Joel Hayes