Supreme Court weighs frequent flier case

The Supreme Court is considering a lawsuit about a frequent-flier program member who was dropped from his mileage plan with Northwest Airlines before the company merged with Delta Airlines, USA Today reports.

The passenger, Minnesota resident Binyomin Ginsberg, says he was unceremoniously dropped from his Northwest mileage program because he filed too many complaints with the now-merged airline.

Ginsberg says he complained about Northwest’s service 24 times in eight months before being dropped in June 2008, according to the paper.

{mosads}His lawsuit claims that Northwest’s decision to drop Ginsberg was a breach of contract.

“People won’t be able to rely on the security of their contracts,” Ginsberg’s lawyer Adina Rosenbaum said during oral arguments, according to the paper.

Lawyers for Northwest have argued that frequent fliers have resources they can take to complain about their treatment besides filing lawsuits, like complaining to the Department of Transportation. 

“If some airline really were crazy enough to systematically turn on its most lucrative and loyal customers, surely the market would solve that,” former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, who is representing Northwest, said according to the paper.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to render a verdict on the frequent-flier program case by June.