Originally Posted by
The Lev
Companies can write whatever they want in their terms and conditions. That does not mean that a court will uphold the T&C's. I strongly suspect that if AE were to deduct 7 year old points without warning they would lose a class action lawsuit. Indded, I would not be surprised to see a lawyer file a class action suit in 2014 that argues that AE has no right to allow any points earned up to Dec 31, 2006 expire since this is an unreasonable retroactive change in the T&C's.
Not so sure. Under contract law, the buyer and seller agree to the terms under force by the seller since the buyer makes no contract demands. And going back through the chain of history, AE miles technically expired within 12-months of the termination of the program. Until AE became a separate company and then rewrote its rules (to include expiring miles terms specifically) the AE program terminated at the end of each year, and miles expired at the end of the following year. AC renewed the program each year, and in doing so the life of the earned miles. Once AE was spun off, it had to have an indefinite life, and thus could no longer go year by year. This led to the current "contract". So I would say AE has a very strong case to remove expired miles under the terms of this agreement with us.