Gifting awards is fine. Actually when in Chile I found out that LanChile does not allow gifting of awards, even to a spouse, each person must accumulate enough miles in his own account to redeem for himself. So all you idiots out there who have to attempt to circumvent the rules to sell the award tickets, what you will probably end up doing is ruining it for the rest of us who play the game according to the rules that are agreed to when you join the program - airlines may stop allowing gifting of awards if they feel that it costs them. In any case, this is not a legal issue with the government but an issue against the program rules. Remember that the airline is the complete ruler of the program and they have carefully reserved their right to close anyone's account if they so desire.

Having consumed quite a few beers with Spider I agree entirely with this.



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~ Glen ~

Come visit HERE the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!

Thanks Glen!! Which part do you exactly agree with?

Why - BOTH parts of course.

It seems to me that charging the money as a "service fee" could be considered legal - the exact same way that Ticket Agencies can sell scalped tickets for up to several times the face value - the markup is charged as a "service fee" and is, therefore, legal. Although they are established businesses, so there may be a difference between that type of entity and an individual.

Would not work too well here. Our 10% GST tax is literally 'Goods and Services Tax'. A 10% tax would need be added if you claimed it was a "service". IIRC Canada also styles it as a "GST" too?

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~ Glen ~

Come visit HERE the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!

I say you do a nice pencil on paper drawing and sell that as your item with the "bonus" free ticket. Who is to say that the drawing isn't worth $1000 now or in the future?

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That is called circumventing the rule. Technically you can still be at fault. And even if you could not, this is not a battle of what is legal or not, the airline can close your account if it wishes, just to protect themselves. If they close your account, you are SOL.

Or you could sue them, and then they'd be SOL.

QL

Sue them for what? Closing your account because you sold an award which is against the rules of which you agreed to by joining the program.

HA!

Yes, that's right.

Violating the terms of a contract does not give the other party the right to do anything they want.

QL

What if the terms of the contract are that if you sell a ticket they have the right to close your account?

How about we say that if it looks, smells, and quacks like it....it probably is......................

This has been discussed many times on FlyerTalk. A customer's contract with an airline is legally a "contract of adhesion" -- a contract set out unilaterally by one party with little or no chance for the other party to negotiate. These contracts are legal and generally enforceable with some exceptions. One exception is for terms deemed "unconscionable" by a court. Restricting the sale of awards is probably not "unconscionable". However, imposing arbitrary penalties that far outweigh real damages without due process is, in my opinion, unconscionable. I would like to see some lawsuits.

QL