A recent court case in Germany may be of interest to German frequent flyers who have concerns about what happens to their miles when their FFP is terminated. When Air Berlin merged with the former German airline LTU, program members of LTU were given a six-month warning to use their points before the program was terminated, which was in accordance with the terms and conditions of the program. The German Supreme Court, however, sided with the member who filed the case and said that he is allowed to use his 54,000 LTU points for 60 months, which was the validity period of points under the LTU frequent flyer program. The court viewed the points as a discount, not a free giveaway, and ruled that customers should be allowed to use the discount as expected under the LTU rules and conditions, which in this case means within a five-year validity period.

Furthermore, the court held that the customer is entitled to get miles for a terminated program if the customer booked a flight before the termination was announced.