American Airlines must face legal threat to lucrative card deal

Banco Santander Brasil can move forward with a lawsuit alleging the COVID-19 pandemic devalued a 10-year branded card agreement with American Airlines worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the carrier, a New York federal judge ruled. US District Judge Rachel Kovner in Brooklyn said on Thursday that the bank can pursue its claim that the airline's temporary cessation of flights to Brazil during the pandemic excused it from paying the airline millions of dollars a year to acquire award miles for cardholders. The deal, which hit the four-year mark in April, allows Banco Santander to issue American Airlines branded payment cards to customers in Brazil but requires it to buy an undisclosed number of award miles every year. American had urged Kovner to dismiss the case, saying that the contract has a provision allowing the bank to terminate the agreement if the airline's market share decreased by more than 50%. A months-long suspension of flights to Brazil in the beginning of the pandemic did not meet the criteria, it said.<br/>