A young Miami computer programmer named Milad Avazdavani booked stays from Denver to Dubai, along with a string of fancy car rentals — all using frequent flier miles from American Airlines. Absolutely none of those miles belonged to him.
The former Florida International University student now stands accused of hacking into the AAdvantage accounts of high-mileage customers and siphoning off enough points to charge trips and cars worth more than $260,000.
When confronted, police say he confessed with braggadocio. But Avazdavani, who has been jailed for a year awaiting trial, says he has admitted to nothing, insisting he is not stupid enough to use stolen miles to book trips in his own name.Yes, he took some trips and rented some cars, Avazdavani said, speaking publicly for the first time in an interview in jail last week. But he swore he was only guilty of “bargain shopping” for travel deals on the internet. He refused to pinpoint who is to blame, cryptically adding “you become a victim when you socialize with the wrong crowd.”
“It was a third party, that’s all I can say,” Avazdavani said, cuffed and seated in a wheelchair because of a bad back. “There are other names, other suspects.”
The unusual case against the student from Iran will likely end in a trial this summer on 19 elony counts, including fraudulent use of someone’s identity, grand theft, organized scheme to defraud and computer offenses.

Photo: CBS4
Milad Avazdavani appeared in court on March 4, 2015 after being arrested, accused of fraudulently accessing American Airlines frequent flyer accounts.

Prosecutors believe Avazdavani masterminded the hacking of American’s AAdvantage program, which allows customers to accrue “miles” every time they book flights, shop with partner businesses or use sponsored credit cards. Over time, a customer can redeem those miles toward flights, hotel stays and other goods.
The criminal probe began with a Texas-based American Airlines investigator named Linda Harper, who in early 2015 began noticing a pattern of suspicious mile-redemption transactions all leading to Miami.
In one case, a Southern California man named Eric Michaelson had 275,000 miles pilfered. Somebody changed his e-mail, then used his account to buy four plane tickets to Denver, book stays at a Fort Lauderdale Embassy Suites and the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, and to rent a Chevy Tahoe.
The transactions immediately sent an alert to Michaelson, who runs a company that manufactures ballistics armor. He called American, and eventually filed a police report. The company reinstated the miles.
“It was a slight nuisance, but it wasn’t earth shattering,” Michaelson said. “I’m more disappointed that when American merged with US Airways, they lost a quarter million of my miles.”The unauthorized transactions were all made in the name, “Milad Avaz.” The pattern — changed customer e-mails, stays at local hotels and rental cars — repeated itself, from the same computer IP address, according to a police report. At least six customers had miles stolen.
“None of the customers impacted lost miles,” said Feinstein, the AA spokesman. “They were reinstated.”
Avazdavani could not always redeem the hotel bookings — twice, stays at the luxury Jumeirah Emirates Towers in Dubai were canceled by American because of suspected fraud. But he did get the cars, five of them in all, according to police, and there is video surveillance of him renting one in Tampa. He crashed one Camaro in Manatee County, according to police reports.Avazdavani doesn’t deny using the rental cars but says any disputes with the rental car companies are “civil, not criminal.”
“My name was on the reservation. All I had to do was go there and give my name and rent the car,” Avazdavani said. “Every single one of them was returned. My personal credit card was on file, for incidentals … all I knew I had the reservation booked for me.”
American turned the investigation over to detectives at Miami-Dade’s airport district. By tracking one rented BMW Z4, Detective Steven Kaufman found Avazdavani in a West Miami-Dade home where he was renting a room in early 2015.
When the homeowner let Kaufman in, according to a police report, Avazdavani locked himself in his room briefly, blurting out that the cops had “no grounds to secure a search warrant so there is no way to get into my room.” Despite the fluency he exhibited, he also added, “I do not speak English,” according to the report.
Inside the room, detectives found a slew of credit cards in other people’s name, as well as 150 grams of marijuana. According to Kaufman’s report, Avazdavani eventually copped to the fraud — but warned there was a “time limit” on his interview with the detective.
“Because when he bonds out he would disappear, take on another identity and would never be seen again,” Kaufman wrote.