The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously sided with Northwest Airlines, now owned by Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, in the case of a complaining rabbi who was booted from the company’s frequent flier program.
The Court said state contract law does not trump the Airline Deregulation Act, which gives airlines broad leeway in how they conduct their affairs, including frequent flier programs. Northwest's said it could terminate a flier's account at its own discretion.
In this case, Northwest said Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg, of Minneapolis, complained too much about service as a way to seek additional rewards, so the airline revoked his membership. Ginsberg said his complaints were polite and infrequent — according to court records, he complained 24 times over an eight-month period — and that Northwest was trying to dump his expensive account to look better in its recent merger with Delta.
The unanimous opinion was written by Justice Samuel Alito.
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