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SALT LAKE CITY — The nation's highest court handed down a decision that allows airlines to dump frequent fliers if they get on the airlines' nerves.
And a new study shows Americans could save billions of dollars through kill switches on their cellphones.
Airlines can dump frequent fliers
The U.S. Supreme Court made it official this week: The airlines can clip your frequent flier membership if you complain too much.
The case involved a Minnesotan rabbi who filed a $5-million lawsuit against Northwest Airlines claiming it kicked him out of its elite travel program, WorldPerks, as a cost-cutting measure. The airline argued it had the right to terminate anyone's membership if they abused it.
The airline noted the rabbi lodged 24 complaints in eight months, and received nearly $1,900 in travel credit and more than 78,000 bonus miles for compensation.
The high court finally ended the five-year legal battle and ruled in favor of the airline.
60 percent of tax returns are filed
The tax season is in its final stretch, and the IRS is churning out refunds slightly bigger than last year’s.
The agency has paid for 73 million refunds so far, averaging $2,831 each. That’s an increase of 1.5 percent from last year's batch.
The IRS has received 60 percent of the 148 million tax returns it expects to process this year.
Phone kill switch saves money
Smartphone manufacturers could save Americans billions of dollars a year if they enabled a "kill switch" on their phones.
A new study out of Creighton University looked into the technology that remotely makes a stolen smartphone useless.
Researchers said Americans spend $580 million every year replacing stolen phones. The researchers also found a kill switch could save consumers $2 billion a year by eliminating premium phone insurance plans from their mobile carriers.
Law enforcers and lawmakers are pressuring cell phone carriers to adopt kill switches to combat the increasing numbers of smartphone thefts.
