American Airlines, The Points Guy Sue Each Other Over Data Use

American Airlines

American Airlines and the travel and loyalty news website The Points Guy (TPG) are suing each other over access to AAdvantage member rewards data.

American Airlines sent a cease-and-desist letter to Red Ventures, the parent company of TPG, accusing it of violating the airline’s trademark and privacy rules. TPG filed a lawsuit in response, prompting American to countersue and ask the federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, for an order to wipe all of the airline’s links and client data from the site.

TPG is using American’s data “in a way that does not comply with our standards of use of confidential information,” American Airlines spokeswoman Andrea Koos said in a statement. “We take customer data and proprietary information incredibly seriously, and want to make sure it is protected and secure.”

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TPG maintains that American Airlines is doing everything possible to prevent the travel site from helping consumers and simply wants to control what people can do with their loyalty rewards.

“We launched The Points Guy App for free last year in September with the goal of allowing travelers to track all of their loyalty programs in one spot. We believe that this gives consumers the power to see how much value they actually have in loyalty points and frequent flyer miles so that they can travel the world,” Brian Kelly, founder of The Points Guy, said in a press release.

“We are choosing to fight back against American Airlines on behalf of travelers to protect their rights to access their points and miles so they can travel smarter. We’ll continue to advocate because we believe the consumer has the right to choose whether you share your loyalty balances with a third-party app that will make your life easier,” Kelly said.

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The TPG app aims to help people make the most of their points and miles and maximize their earning potential, according to the release. Users have tracked over 18 billion points and miles since the app launched.

Award Wallet was forced by American Airlines to stop tracking AAdvantage accounts. An American Airlines source told viewfromthewing.com that the airline wanted customers on AA.com for cross-marketing purposes.