Miles Apart: American Airlines v. The Points Guy
Brian Kelly, fought back and counter-sued American, claiming consumers have the right to input and manage their own personal mileage and reward points.
How did we get here?Last year TPG launched the new The Points Guy app, a free app to help consumers manage earned points and miles in one spot by linking together different frequent flyer and credit card points accounts.
TPG writes that the app “demystifies the complexities of award travel by helping users learn about points, miles and loyalty programs; maximize their earning potential; and discover how to efficiently use those earned points and miles to see the world.”Up until now, The Points Guy app pulled data directly from member’s frequent flyer accounts.
In the case of American Airlines, the TPG app would prompt the user to enter their AAdvantage number and password.American Airlines alleges that the TPG app doesn’t have authorized access to American AAdvantage accounts and TPG doesn’t have the right to “invade American’s servers, access users’ accounts, and collect and expropriate the proprietary data.” Furthermore, the airline maintains that access and collection of data are all in violation of American’s terms and conditions.After American sent a cease and desist to TPG, TPG countered with a lawsuit of their own, claiming that individuals have the right to their awarded travel points as well as the right to share that information with any third-party app that might offer additional services to them based on that information.
