American Airlines, Inc. v. Wolens, 513 U.S. 219, 8 (1995)

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226

AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC. v. WOLENS

Opinion of the Court

vacated the judgment of the Supreme Court of Illinois, and remanded for further consideration in light of Morales. American Airlines, Inc. v. Wolens, 506 U. S. 803 (1992).

On remand, the Illinois Supreme Court, with one dissent, adhered to its prior judgment. Describing frequent flyer programs as not "essential," 157 Ill. 2d 466, 472, 626 N. E. 2d 205, 208 (1993), but merely "peripheral to the operation of an airline," ibid., the Illinois court typed plaintiffs' state-law claims for money damages as "relat[ed] to American's rates, routes, and services" only "tangential[ly]" or "tenuous[ly]," ibid.

We granted American's second petition for certiorari, 511 U. S. 1017 (1994), and we now reverse the Illinois Supreme Court's judgment to the extent that it allowed survival of plaintiffs' Consumer Fraud Act claims; we affirm that judgment, however, to the extent that it permits plaintiffs' breach-of-contract action to proceed. In both respects, we adopt the position of the DOT, as advanced in this Court by the United States.

II

We need not dwell on the question whether plaintiffs' complaints state claims "relating to [air carrier] rates, routes, or services." Morales, we are satisfied, does not countenance the Illinois Supreme Court's separation of matters "essential" from matters unessential to airline operations. Plaintiffs' claims relate to "rates," i. e., American's charges in the form of mileage credits for free tickets and upgrades, and to "services," i. e., access to flights and class-of-service upgrades unlimited by retrospectively applied capacity controls and blackout dates. But the ADA's preemption clause contains other words in need of interpretation, specifically, the words "enact or enforce any law" in the instruction: "[N]o State . . . shall enact or enforce any law . . . relating to [air carrier] rates, routes, or services." 49 U. S. C. App. § 1305(a)(1). Taking into account all the words Congress placed in § 1305(a)(1), we first consider whether plaintiffs'

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