loyalty program. On May 28, 2008, ACE Aviation Holdings disposed of its remaining holdings in the fund for $438 million. As such, the Aeroplan program was no longer under direct control of Air Canada. The corporate name was changed to Aimia in order to "reflect the fact that the program has grown and diversified into a comprehensive customer loyalty program with hundreds of participating retailers." In November 2018, Aimia signed a definitive agreement with Air Canada to sell Aeroplan back to Air Canada for $450M in cash. This means Air Canada successfully sold Aeroplan for a combined $688 million, and repurchased it 10 years later for $450 million, for a profit of $238 million before expenses or inflation adjustments. Accounting for inflation yields a sale price of $832.2 in 2018 dollars, resulting in a profit of $382M before expenses. Competition Aeroplan faces competition from many sources, including other airline reward programs (even within Star Alliance), various bank-affiliated credit card loyalty plans, and the Air Miles program. Mileage expiration Aeroplan points expire if the member has no account activity for a period of 18 months. In the past, Aeroplan had a policy where all miles would expire after seven years, even if there was continued activity in the account. This policy has since been cancelled as of June 27, 2013. Class action lawsuit When miles expire, Aeroplan offers to restore the miles for a fee of $30 plus $0.01 per mile, which in some instances has resulted in charges of several thousand dollars for high-mileage members. Members have argued that Aeroplan had already been paid for the miles through the selling partner by virtue of the retail pricing and by fees charged for certain collector credit cards. As a result, on many blogs, members were upset that their miles had been emptied from their accounts. As Aeroplan refused to give the miles back, a class action lawsuit was launched by Montreal lawyer Owen Falquero of Merchant Law Group LLP. On August 3, 2009, the Quebec Superior Court granted authorization to launch a class-action lawsuit challenging Groupe Aeroplan Inc.'s practice of cancelling points accumulated in its loyalty program. The motion, obtained by Montreal lawyer Owen Falquero of Merchant Law Group LLP, was filed on behalf of about seven plaintiffs across Canada; however, thousands of petitioners have registered for membership in the class. The motion was filed formally on behalf of Noella Neale