CHARLOTTE — Red Ventures’ popular travel website The Points Guy is facing a legal battle with Charlotte’s dominant air carrier, American Airlines, over its rewards management app.
The app that allows users to sync airline mileage data violates trademark and privacy rules, American Airlines Group Inc. contends in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, where the airline is based.
The suit asks for an order stripping American links and customer data from the site.
American says the app, which debuted in September, encourages members to give up their user information and passwords so that The Points Guy can “invade American’s servers, access users’ accounts, and collect and expropriate the proprietary data that AAdvantage has developed, maintained, stored and protected over many years.”
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Indian Land-based Red Ventures acquired The Points Guy in 2017 as part of its $1.4 billion acquisition of Bankrate Inc.
In a statement, The Points Guy said it is suing American “for attempting to block the media platform from providing the cost and time-saving benefits of The Points Guy App to consumers.”
The Points Guy filed its suit against American in Superior Court in Delaware in response to a cease-and-desist letter from the airline.
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