American Airlines filed a lawsuit against the travel guidance website The Points Guy, alleging that the site violated the terms of use of its frequent flyer program by offering an app that lets users track miles from multiple airlines in a single point. The company is seeking a court order to block The Points Guy from accessing or using American Airlines' customer data and preventing its users from accessing their own accounts through the TPG app or website.
American Airlines also sought to prevent The Points Guy from displaying The Points Guy's logo and other trademarks.
Released in September 2021, the TPG app claims to "help users learn about points, miles, and loyalty programs while maximizing their earning potential and discovering how to effectively burn those earned points and miles to see the world." "
The app allows users to link different frequent flyer accounts together. In The American Airlines case, the TPG app prompted customers to enter an AAdvantage account, password, and last name into the app.
The lawsuit filed by American Airlines says the TPG app encouraged members of its AAdvantage program to collectively violate its terms of use by handing over their user login information to unauthorized third parties. The airline said the logins allowed The Points Guy to "hack into American Airlines' servers, access users' accounts, and collect and requisition proprietary data," in violation of its user terms. The complaint accuses The Points Guy of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, an anti-hacking statute. In addition, the indictment cites a litany of other offences, such as breach of contract, trespassing, trademark infringement and copyright infringement (because the app also shows the American Airlines logo).
Amanda Cuz, a representative of American Airlines, said in a statement that Red Ventures, the parent company of The Points Guy, "is accessing AA.com and AAdvantage customer account data in a way that does not meet our standards for using confidential information." She added that American Airlines takes "customer data and proprietary information very seriously and wants to ensure it's protected and secure."
The Points Guy preemptively sued the company in Delaware after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from American Airlines, claiming that the company "sought to prevent media platforms from offering consumers the cost and time saving benefits of The Points Guy app."
Brian Kelly, founder of The Points Guy, said in a statement: "Consumers are always in control of their own data on The Points Guy app – they decide which loyalty programs and credit cards are accessible to make their points and mileage journey easier. The website chose to fight back against American Airlines on behalf of travelers in court to protect their right to earn points and miles so they could travel smarter, he added.
American Asked the Court to ban The Points Guy from allowing users to log in to AAdvantage through a TPG app or website and to prohibit it from storing AAdvantage passwords and other member information. It also seeks to legally prevent The Points Guy from displaying U.S. "copyrighted material" — the American Airlines logo. The lawsuit seeks statutory damages for trademark and copyright infringement, as well as additional unspecified damages including any "'improper income and benefits'" that The Points Guy may receive from U.S. customers and their data.