Washington, DC – The United States Supreme Court is slated to hear an hour’s worth of oral arguments on Tuesday in the case involving Minnesota Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg who claims he was unceremoniously dumped from Northwest Airlines’ WorldPerks Platinum Elite program for “complaining too much.”
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CNN.com (http://cnn.it/1b5WnPe) reports that the SCOTUS justices will determine whether Ginsberg had the right to sue Northwest under state law, or whether Northwest’s claim to “sole judgement” in deciding to revoke Ginsberg’s membership in the frequent flier program is protected under a 1970s federal law deregulating the airline industry.
Ginsberg’s case garnered national attention back in 2008 when his membership in the program was revoked, with Northwest reps claiming he had “abused” the terms of the program by lodging 24 complaints in eight months.
Northwest has since become part of Delta Airlines in a merger that took place in 2008.
Ginsberg said he was notified by Northwest in 2008 saying, “You have continually asked for compensation over and above our guidelines. We have awarded you $1,925 in travel credit vouchers, 78,500 WorldPerks bonus miles, a voucher extension for your son, and $491 in cash reimbursements. Due to our past generosity, we must respectfully advise that we will no longer be awarding you compensation each time you contact us.”
Ginsberg said “To me it’s outright fraud. You can’t take somebody’s mileage away when they’ve accumulated it.”
This “rabbi” is a chillul hashem
I’m not happy about this.
It is an interesting case in legal terms, and can have serious ramifications for the future of the industry.
But meanwhile it perpetuates the stereotype of “the greedy Jew”.
(In my humble layman’s opinion, the Airline could/should have discontinued his membership without taking away the points he had already accumulated.
And perhaps they should have also first issued him a “warning notice” before kicking him out of the program…)
It would be funny if the official case title is “The kvetching Jew vs. Northwest 2013”
Very nice. The Supreme Court wants to show they are not anti Semitic so they accept a rabbis case so he can have meaningless miles.
I’d be more impressed if you took the rubashkin case. Shame on you “supreme” court. Your not supreme in my book.
The next complaint by the complaining Rabbi will be directed against the SCOTUS (!)
Very nice. The Supreme Court wants to show they are not anti Semitic so they accept a rabbis case so he can have meaningless miles.
I’d be more impressed if you took the rubashkin case. Shame on you “supreme” court. Your not supreme in my book.