In the latest of a long run of skirmishes between the law and frequent flyer miles, the Frequent Flyer Depot has just lost seven claims and contentions against American Airlines. A dispute that went on for years, it was the opinion of the court that indeed the American Airlines AAdvantage program had every right to police the efforts of companies like the Frequent Flyer Depot from soliciting their members to buy and sell AA miles. Reading through the transcript reinforced what we have warned various members of frequent flyer programs over the years, “Since 2005, American has stopped travel on tickets sold by Frequent Flyer (Depot) by freezing the accounts of AAdvantage members who American discovers have improperly sold their reward points to a third party.”This points out that there is certainly a risk to dealing with coupon brokers. What else is interesting in this case is the admission of George Pirkle, one of the defendants, that “… American successfully discovers and stops travel on Frequent Flyer’s (Depot) transactions only between about three and four to 10 percent of the time.”

So, there you have it, once an airline starts to monitor one of these coupon brokers, members on average are busted from three to 10 percent of the time once they sell their miles. Not sure if those odds sound good to you considering the resulting freeze on your account, but consider you are again warned of the consequences. If you like to sink your teeth into legalese, visit http://insideflyerus.wpengine.com/link/?1533 to read more about the case