American Air sues Points Guy over rewards management app

Bloomberg

American Airlines Inc. is suing the Points Guy travel site for letting frequent flyers manage their miles outside the carrier’s own website.
The airline accused the Points Guy of violating its trademark as well as privacy rules associated with its AAdvantage loyalty program. It asked the federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, for an order stripping all American links and customer data from the site.
The Points Guy is accessing and using airline data “in a way that does not comply with our standards of use of confidential information,” Andrea Koos, a spokeswoman for Forth Worth-based American, said Thursday in an emailed statement. “We take customer data and proprietary information incredibly seriously, and want to make sure it is protected and secure.”
Started as a blog offering tips on how to best accumulate and use airline miles, the Points Guy has expanded considerably in recent years with credit card reviews and travel news. It launched an app in September that lets users track all of their mileage programs from different airlines in one place.
Preemptive Suit
The Points Guy preemptively sued American last week in Delaware, seeking a court ruling that it’s legal for consumers to input and manage their own frequent flyer data on a third-party site. In a statement on Thursday, the site said it filed suit after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from the airline.
“We fundamentally believe that if you want to let us track your points in a safe and secure manner, then you should be allowed to do so through our app,” Brian Kelly, founder of the Points Guy, said Thursday in an emailed statement.
American is seeking unspecified damages that include all “ill-gotten revenues and benefits” the Points Guy has generated from AAdvantage customers and its use of the airline’s marks and proprietary data, according to the suit filed Monday.
The Points Guy claims to have 10 million unique visitors a month and more than 3 million followers on social media. The company says that, since its launch, the app has been used to track over 18 billion points and miles.