The man who had his lifelong first-class plane ticket taken off of him for apparent rule-breaking is thought to have taken more than 10,000 flights in the 25 years he had the £190,000 perk.
It was way back in 1987 that Steven Rothstein paid $250,000 (£190,000) for the AAirpass, sold by American Airlines, giving the stockbroker the perk of flying first class every time he booked a ticket with them.
Rothstein also paid $150,000 (£115,000) for a companion pass, giving him the ability to fly with a guest alongside him.
The pass was meant to give Rothstein free first class flights until he died, but that all changed when American Airlines took the AAirpass off of him, saying he had broken the rules that came with it.
Rothstein’s ticket was revoked (Caroline Rothstein)
How did Rothstein lose his American Airlines’ AAirpass?
Rothstein had his AAirpass for more than 20 years until it was taken off of him in 2008.
American Airlines went one step further and actually launched legal action against him.
But Rothstein said he had only been given one rule when he bought the ticket 20 years prior and that was that he couldn’t let anybody else use the pass.
He told the Guardian: “When I bought the AAirpass, in no uncertain terms, they told me that there was only one rule: I couldn’t give anybody the AAirpass. And those were the days before they took identification from passengers.”
Rothstein said he always stuck to the rule, even when a colleague offered him $5,000 a week to use the pass.
American Airlines explained that Rothstein had made ‘speculative bookings’ for non-existent passengers under names including ‘Bag Rothstein’ and ‘Steven Rothstein Jr’.
Rothstein launched a counter claim, accusing American Airlines of breaking its deal to offer it for life, with the two parties settling outside of court.
American Airlines revoked his pass (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The flights Steven Rothstein took using his AAirpass
Reports online show that Rothstein took more than 10,000 flights in total using his AAirpass.
Of these, more trips were taken to New York City than anywhere else with 1,000 flights to his name.
Following this, 500 flights were taken to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and London each.
A further 120 flights went to Tokyo, with 80 flights to both Paris and Sydney.
Hong Kong was the destination of choice for a further 50 flights.
Other destinations that Rothstein went to were Nova Scotia, Maine, Denver, Dallas, Houston, Mexico City, Acapulco, Wichita Falls, and Fort Lauderdale.
In total, Rothstein was reported to have cost American Airlines more than $21 million in first class fares, which equates to roughly £16 million.
