United Seeks Dismissal of Travel Insurance Kickback Class Action

United Airlines recently argued that a class action lawsuit against them should be dismissed because the plaintiff failed to allege deceptive kickback acts.

The airline told U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso that plaintiff Patricia Flores failed to sufficiently claim deceptive acts under the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.

United says Flores’ allegations “do not come close” to meeting the requirements and don’t give her standing to represent the proposed Class.

“To the contrary, the most reasonable inference from plaintiff’s allegations is that she saw travel insurance marketing, purchased travel insurance, received her policy, submitted a claim against her policy (if any), and suffered any harm related to her purchase in Texas, where she lives,” United Airlines argued in their motion.

The laws require Flores to made specific allegations, United Airlines notes. Flores allegedly relied on marketing representations from the airline, but United argues that she did not specify which representations she read and relied on.

“Plaintiff does not allege what representations she read, when she read those representations, where she read those representations, how those representations caused her to purchase travel insurance, and how she has been harmed by her purchase of a travel insurance policy that she admittedly received,” United Airlines claimed.

Flores filed her United Airlines class action lawsuit in September 2018, alleging that the airline company engages in an illegal kickback arrangement with Travel Guard Group Inc. which provides trip insurance.

Representations on the airlines’ website allegedly make consumers believe that the Travel Guard trip insurance is separate from their United Airlines purchase.

According to her United Airlines class action lawsuit, Flores purchased a Travel Guard trip insurance policy through the airlines’ website. She allegedly received an email from Travel Guard a short time later which did not reference United Airlines at all.

Flores argues that the email caused her to believe that her insurance policy was entirely separate from her business with United Airlines.

However, the United class action states that the airline actually receives illegal kickbacks for every travel insurance policy purchased through Travel Guard.

Flores claims that United fails to disclose on their website that they receive a kickback from insurance purchases. She cites representations on the airlines’ website which encourage consumers to buy travel insurance but fails to disclose United’s profits from the suggestion.

The United Airlines passenger argues that these actions are deceptive because parties are prohibited by state law from selling insurance if they are not licensed to do so. Since United Airlines allegedly benefits from the sale of insurance policies, Flores claims that they are effectively selling insurance even though they lack the licensing to do so.

With their recent motion, United Airlines claims that Flores hasn’t sufficiently alleged damages and deceptive acts, thus invalidating her claims.

Flores is represented by George A. Zelcs, Randall P. Ewing Jr. and Aaron M. Zigler of Korein Tillery LLC, and Alec H. Schultz of Leon Cosgrove LLP.

The United Airlines Travel Insurance Kickback Scheme Class Action Lawsuit is Flores, et al. v. United Airlines, Case No 1:18-­cv-­06571, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.