Looking for a FF Attorney
 

I unfortunately am having a major problem with an airlines FF program and feel its time to "not take matters into my own hands". I've have been sending letters, faxes, and making numerous calls to this airline and they simply refuse to answer any of my queries. My account was transferred to them from another airline and they refuse to acknowledge the account even exists. A friend of mine works for this particular airline and told me they are aware of this account. I recently sent a demand letter with a reply by date for information and surprisingly, no response. Its a foreign airline but it has a FF office here in the States and flies to numerous cities here as well. I have over 20 F tickets from the US to Europe in this account and I haven't been able to use them since the account was transferred in January 2003.

Anyone know if there is a listing of attorneys who specialize in FF cases? Can I make a claim here in the US or do I have to go to the airlines home base?

If you are contemplating filing a lawsuit, nothing will prohibit you from filing here in the United States, assuming of course, that you are a citizen/resident. But I would be surprised if the conditions of the carrier's frequent flier program did not attempt to contractually fix venue for litigation (or arbitration) in their home forum. That said, in order to get the lawsuit dismissed, the defendant carrier will have to assert forum non conveniens grounds and convince a court here that its forum selection clause is not unconscionable, a position that is not always tenable. If you really want to get a flavor for the legal issue involved, check out the Supreme Court's opinion in Carnival Cruise Lines v. Shute, 499 US 585 (1991). Good luck!

[This message has been edited by cAAl (edited 10-21-2003).]

MileTex,

Sounds to me like you've found a possible attorney -- contact the last poster!

I played polo once with this guy and only knew he was an attorney in San Francisco. Afterward, I started seeing him quoted in all the major travel magazines as a travel attorney. It's been a while so I just called his secretary to make sure the number's still good.

Alexander Anolik
693 Sutter St., Sixth Floor
San Francisco
415-673-3333

BosSox45 or similar name is an attorney. So is the nice guy (real name known but FT name forgotten) in Chicago who gave me an upgrade in a Saddam contest on FT

I;m not sure if they have them in the states, but here in the UK - the next step would be to go to your local consumer organisation and ask them to deal with it ... if that fails, then go to a lawyer.

I have never heard of this before. How could be done between two different airlines? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif I'll be very interested if this were ture.

terry...it could be that the mi's were transfered from a defunct carrier...pan am mi's went to delta when pan am went under.

Don't waste your time; he's a transactional [as opposed to litigation] attorney who got into the news by advising travel agencies insofar as their registration obligations under California's then new Seller of Travel Law. Your question and forum for resolution are 180 degrees opposite.

Besides, how much money are you willing to spend against this airline? Whatever the amount, the odds are legion you won't be able to recover your attorney's fees even if successful.

More to the point although I am sure they won't be interested in your case, why don't you contact the attorneys who represented plaintiffs in the landmark Wolens vs. American Airlines case [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=000&invol=U10324]? I believe they would be BRUCE J. ENNIS JR., Washington, D.C. (JEROLD S. SOLOVY, MARGUERITE M. TOMPKINS, DONALD B. VERRILLI JR., JENNER & BLOCK, RICHARD A. ROTHMAN, BONNIE GARONE, WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES, and MICHAEL J. RIDER).

As an alternative why don't you just identify the culprit and publish derogatory remarks [there is nothing actionable about publishing the truth, even if derogatory]? I actually ran across something like this mounted against the California Howard Jarvis tax crusade organization. The fellow secured a confusingly similar URL [hjta.com instead of hjta.org] to promote his story complete with names, dates and other interesting tidbits of info. You might want to check it out for some "ideas."

Good luck!

Someone trying to run from AF??

I would suspect this is a KLM -> NWA tranfer from their great promotion last year. If so, I hope you are successful as they promote their alliance as if they are one program not allowing overlap in the US.

Thanks for all your help. Still debating which action to take. Actually my miles were with the Qualiflyer program and when they went out of business you could transfer your miles to Lufthansa. So Lufthansa is the one who has my miles but refuses to let me use them for some unknown reason.

It depends on the supposed value of your miles - but I would try small claims court - which seems to be succesful in many cases as airlines loathe to spend money and effort on them.

That make sense then. I thought someone might have found a secret way to transfer account and miles between airlines. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Small Claims Court won't help as they all have low maximum, depending on state. After all, it is for small claims. MileTex is talking about a six figure claim. Maybe you could post on LH forum and see if someone may have better knowledge of this.

[This message has been edited by TerryK (edited 10-22-2003).]

No it isn't. This promotion (or challenge) matched miles in another airline's account for KL points and status. No transfers involved. I suspect a NW => KL transfer although I am not aware of KL having a FF affairs office in the U.S.

Another possibilities include Qantas if the transferred account was a BA EC account domiciled in the S.W. Pacific/Oceania or perhaps an AsiaMiles to EC transfer (if one moves the account domicile from certain Asian countries to elsewhere). BA is the only non-U.S. airline with a FF affairs office in the U.S. AFAIK.