How to notify or transfer American Airlines AAdvantage when someone has passed away

Executor and Fiduciary Guide - American Airlines AAdvantage Administration

Free guide for executors, fiduciaries, and the firms that advise them.

Administering an estate professionally? Eternal Pro captures every client asset at intake, traditional and digital, so accounts like this one are never found late. See how it works or book a demo.

Our guide on how to notify American Airlines AAdvantage about a deceased person.

Steps to notify American Airlines AAdvantage

Verify authorization

Before starting, gather the documentation showing your legal authorization to proceed. If in doubt, double check with your estate executor, or trustee. American Airlines AAdvantage generally requires:

Death Certificate - A death certificate is an official document issued by the government, which declares cause of death, location of death, time of death and other information about the deceased.
Affidavit - An affidavit is a written statement in which the signer verifies that the document is true, containing all the information the provider needs to verify your authorization to act on behalf of the deceased.

Fiduciary authority. In most US states a fiduciary's access to a decedent's digital assets is governed by RUFADAA, the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. Where the account holder used the provider's own online tool — a legacy contact, an inactive account manager, or a beneficiary designation — that choice generally takes priority over conflicting will or trust language. Check the directive settings before relying on the will. General information, not legal advice.

Identify wishes

AAdvantage is the frequent-flyer program for American Airlines. Identify what the deceased's instructions are, or what they wanted to have happen to this asset when they passed away. This is usually located in their will or living trust documents. Or, if they're using Eternal Me, authorized executors can login and view their instructions.

An authorized fiduciary can carry out these actions manually for American Airlines AAdvantage:

Manual Deletion

Request removal or deletion of the asset, or closure of account.
Bequest

Manually transfer item.
Custom

Attempt custom instructions for managing this item.

Administer American Airlines AAdvantage

Now that you've verified your authorization and identified the deceased's wishes, do the work to carry out their instructions. You can transfer AAdvantage Miles by calling 800-882-8880, to have the mileage balance from a deceased member's account transferred.

Document activities

It's important to carefully record each interaction, and be able to check on and report the status to heirs and estate executors. This is automatically handled for users of Eternal Me.

Handling this for a client?

Most digital assets are found the hard way — a renewal charge, a forwarded email, a relative who remembers. By then the account may be locked, or already deleted.

Eternal Pro is estate intake software for law firms and professional fiduciaries. Clients inventory their own assets — property, bank and investment accounts, crypto wallets, email, subscriptions, social profiles — in under 15 minutes, with instructions and directives attached to each one. When a matter reaches administration, the list already exists.

Traditional and digital assets in one inventory
Client-recorded instructions captured per asset at intake
Automatic update reminders, so the record is current when it matters
Flat rate, unlimited matters · SOC 2 Type 2 · HIPAA compliant

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Continue to other assets

After handling the notification, move onto other assets. Here's a selection of other digital assets to address.

Twitch

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

Stop finding digital assets after the fact

Eternal Pro builds a complete inventory of your clients' traditional and digital assets during intake, and keeps it current for as long as they are your clients.