TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Traveling For Miles has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Traveling For Miles and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.
For a little over 8 years, Award Wallet has had an agreement in place with American Airlines which has allowed it to access flyer data via an API that, in turn, allowed it to keep members informed of any changes to their flights and AAdvantage account balances. As of today, that access has been revoked and Award Wallet members can no longer use the application to track their American Airlines flights or AAdvantage accounts.
Award Wallet is one of the most useful tools in the miles and points world because it allows users to keep track of balances held with a wide variety of loyalty programs across the world as well as free night certificates, upgrade certificates, and a lot more. It’s also a great tool for those of us who love to fly because it keeps an eye on flight bookings and seat selections and alerts users when it detects any changes – I’ve lost count of the number of times Award Wallet has let me know of a flight delay well in advance of any notification from the airline operating the flight.
Sadly, if you’re an American Airlines flyer, Award Wallet has just got a lot less useful after the airline pulled the plug on the agreement between the two parties. In an email sent out to users earlier today, this is what Award Wallet had to say:
We’re writing to let you know that American Airlines has forced us to stop tracking your American Airlines account on AwardWallet. We are extremely disappointed in this decision. AwardWallet believes that you own your loyalty and travel data and that you have the right to control and share that data as you see fit.
Unfortunately, we are not in a position to fight this demand. As of today, we have removed the following accounts from AwardWallet:
[Redacted]
In addition, we removed your future American Airlines flights from AwardWallet. We recognize that AwardWallet members value the ability to track all of their loyalty accounts in one place, and we are deeply sorry that we have been forced to take this action.
If you have questions about American Airlines’ decision, you can contact them directly:
https://www.aa.com/contact/forms
https://twitter.com/AmericanAir
https://www.facebook.com/AmericanAirlines/
https://www.instagram.com/americanair/
In addition, a petition was created to encourage American Airlines to reconsider its decision; we would appreciate it if you could sign it!
https://www.change.org/AA-AwardWallet
Finally, you are probably wondering if AwardWallet will have the same workaround for American Airlines accounts as we have for Delta, United, and Southwest but unfortunately, at the moment we are not able to offer it to you.
It’s still unclear as to why American Airlines has chosen to end its relationship with Award Wallet but as with a lot of what American Airlines has been doing over the past 5+ years, this is a very customer-unfriendly move.
American Airlines is hopeless when it comes to giving flyers timely updates when their flight bookings change or when their flights are delayed and, as far as I can tell, the airline doesn’t even bother to let flyers know when they have been moved from their chosen seats so Award Wallet has been invaluable to AA loyalists for years. Not any more.
I’ve signed the petition asking American Airlines to walk back this apparently dumb decision that it has taken but I don’t have much hope that it will achieve very much. American gave up any pretense of caring about its flyers or members a long time ago and is a shadow of the great airline that it once was. In hindsight, I guess this latest move really shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Nevertheless, apparent lost causes have surprised us all in the past so if you’re affected by the removal of American Airlines from Award Wallet, please take a few moments to sign the petition to let the airline know what you think. A large number of signatures may not force American to walk back its decision, but it may at least send it a message that it can’t make customer-unfriendly decisions without its flyers noticing.
