<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mdtony:
Look, guys, you may not like it. I don't. But they can do whatever the heck they want with their program. If they want to, they can kill the program, without giving any notice. So there's nothing we can do about it. We can either decide that we want to continue to use the program, with all its rules and policies, or we can decide we don't want to. That's our choice.
A class action lawsuit? For what? Doing exactly what they said they could do in the terms and conditions of the program? Some tort lawyer will make a lot of money off it, because AMR will likely settle to rid themselves of the lawsuit, but you and I won't see squat.</font>
they can do whatever the heck they want with their program. Well, from a practical point, mdtony is close, but not right on:
Airlines can make arbitrary changes in the rules, but they have to consider the effects of the changes on the loyalty of their passenger base and the possibility, remote but real, that they may have a lawsuit.
If a court determines that the contract terms are contrary to public policy, they can, and have, adjusted terms - like requiring a six month redemption period.
And, if we are to judge by comments on these FT fora, FTers change FF programmes on an average of about five times a year.
My guess is that the possibility of loss of passengers is a much greater factor in airline decisions about changing FF rules than concern about potential law suits, and that any changes are only made after careful consideration of what other airlines are doing, and might do.
Bruce