Featured Image Credit: Pexels/Alfred GF/Caroline Rothstein/The Guardian
Topics: Travel
Callum Jones
A man who cost American Airlines a whopping $21,000,000 with his $250,000 lifetime ticket was sued by the airline for a completely different reason.
With how expensive air travel can be nowadays, a lifetime pass for an airline is surely one of the most valuable things out there.
They are pretty unheard of nowadays, and maybe that is due to a scheme American Airlines introduced in 1981.
The airline offered up free first-class tickets for life to any person willing to pay $250,000 on the spot.
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American Airlines were dealing with financial struggles at the time and saw the scheme as a way to get out of it.
A total of 66 people purchased the lifetime pass, known officially as the AAirpass - but the scheme well and truly blew up in the airline's face.
Steven Rothstein was one of those to purchase the pass, which ultimately cost American Airlines over $21 million in profits.
Rothstein certainly took advantage of the lifetime pass, with the frequent flyer having travelled 30 million miles across 10,000 flights with American Airlines.
This led to the airline suing Rothstein, but not for his personal overuse of the lifetime pass.
They instead sued the passenger for fraud, accusing him of booking seats for non-existent passengers under names such as 'Bag Rothstein' and 'Steven Rothstein Jr'.
American Airlines also took legal action for Rothstein allegedly booking tickets for flights he was never planning to board.
The legal threat did not make it to court, however, with both American Airlines and Rothstein settling things out of court.
It took American Airlines decades to realize Rothstein was costing them millions of dollars.
It was in 2008 when the airline revoked Rothstein's pass in the middle of a travel day, leaving him unable to board his flight to Bosnia as a result.
While the passenger milked American Airlines for millions of dollars, he did actually use his pass to help those in need.
Speaking to Forbes back in 2019, Rothstein explained: "I gave a man in Seattle a ticket to go to his father’s funeral. I gave many people tickets to visit ill family members.
“I don’t view that as philanthropy, I view that as good deeds.”
After the fallout with American Airlines, you certainly won't be surprised to know Rothstein prefers flying with United Airlines.