Landing Gear

I will respectfully disagree with every single thing you wrote.

I see you are in France. Whether or not you are French, perhaps you have a different perspective. I know my French relatives generally view things differently from me.

However, here is a more detailed explanation of my view.

You say, "someone who signs up to a Frequent Flyer Programme (bolding is mine) but never flies" is automatically suspect. This flies in the face of reality.

This is no longer 1981 when the first major airline frequent flier program (AAdvantage) was established and you earned miles solely by flying. Airlines allow miles to be earned from many different sources whether or not you have flown a single mile. For example, you could sign up for one of the Citi Bank American Airlines AAdvantage MasterCards and you will earn at least one mile for every dollar spent. This will be credited to your account and as far as I know, there are no problems in redeeming them especially when, as in my case, you want to use the miles for travel for yourself and your spouse with the same last name.

If, hypothetically speaking, you signed up for that credit card, paid your bills, earned the miles and then the airline refused to allow you to redeem them, "nonsense" is not the word I would use. Rather, a few choice terms come to mind starting with "breach of contract." In fact, a consumer regulator like the Attorney General of the State or New York might use a term like "fraud."

And it does not matter how many miles are at stake whether it's 300,000 or more. ("Zillions?" Ha ha.) Also, we are not talking about reasonable checks. In the original thread I linked, the OP was forced to jump through many hoops and no matter what he did, he could not get the Air France tickets. That is a benefit that is at best illusory.

Getting back to the original question, American Express, a US corporation, represents to its customers that they will earn Membership Rewards points by paying their bills and that these "points" can be used for certain benefits like air travel through different airlines which have supposedly arranged to provide these benefits to AMEX customers in return for payments that AMEX makes them because it earns fees from its customers.

So, no, "it makes sense" to no one that you can set up a system where people follow all the published rules and then you say they cannot redeem the "points" for that which they were promised, i.e. airline tickets. "Nonsense" is a very nice word for what, if still going on, is a deceptive business practice. Or, as you guys say, it's louche.