Question
I have had an AA Mastercard for about 5 years. I applied for a new one in Aug. 06, got 20,000 bonus miles and cancelled 6 mos. later. I again applied in Jan. 07 and did not expect to get the bonus miles, BUT IT DID. 20,000 miles were posted today.
I went thru the same scenario with my United Airlines Visa card, but DID NOT get the bonus miles the last time.
Might want to try again.
Answer
Welcome to Flyertalk.
Applying, earning the bonus, cancelling, and repeating is called "churning". Citibank, the issuer of of the AAdvantage cards, permits this; Chase, the issuer of the United card, recently started enforcing their own rules and no longer does.