RE: CLASS ACTION SUIT AGAINST AEROPLAN I don't know the details of whether Aeroplan members were adequately notified, but it was covered in the media: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2006/10/16/aeroplanmileschange.html
I'm not an Aeroplan member. Yet even I knew about the requirement to do a transaction at least once every year to keep the accumulated miles from expiring. I found it a bit odd that it required only a simple 1 mile transaction to keep, say,150,000 miles from expiring. The 7 year rule is ok. Can't keep hoarding the miles, otherwise any loyalty program will becone ineffective. Airmiles now also has the 7 year rule. Other loyalty programs around the world have a 3 year expiry limit.
I still have Airmiles in my account which cost only 12 cents ten years ago. Now they are being issued at about 25-30 cents. Another thing is the number of miles required for a trip has risen for both loyalty programs. All this because the cost of travel by air has risen.
I see the Aeroplan class action suit one of the company providing adequate notification of changes, rather than with the changes themselves. Whether the suit is affecting car dealership sign-ons is unclear. Many members of the 4.7 million followed the changed of rules and still have their miles. If they did so with adequate notification (my friend who is an Aeroplan member, said it was adequate and he doesn't even have a computer), what were the other members doing?
I think the reason the lawsuit is going on, is about the definition of adequate notification. Term and conditions #17 and 18 leave some room for debate. "Mileage may expire without further notice". I think all loyalty programs have that in fine print now. Hard to say what the terms and conditions were prior to the change in terms in October 2006.