A former American Airlines boss revealed the reasoning behind why the firm cancelled Steven Rothstein’s lifelong first-class plane ticket after his journeys supposedly cost them millions.
The businessman, from Chicago, bought into the travel giant’s AAirpass scheme back in 1987, stumping up a whopping $250,000 (£190,000) for the privilege of flying in style each time he stepped onto an aircraft.
And considering this was a bloke who ‘got on a plane like most people get on a bus’, according to his former wife Nancy, this obviously proved to be a very beneficial purchase.
Rothstein splashed out on the pricey ticket at the age of 37 before forking out another $150,000 (£115,000) for a companion pass two years later, which allowed him to bring a guest along for the ride too.
The stockbroker flew multiple times each month, travelling more than 30 million miles on his first-class plane ticket over the 20-year period he had it, which is said to have cost American Airlines a hefty $21 million (£16 million) altogether.
Rothstein enjoyed 10,000 flights on his golden ticket, but his days of luxury travel all came to an abrupt end on 13 December, 2008, after he arrived at the airport.
Steven Rothstein’s supposedly lifelong ticket to flying in style only lasted him for two decades (Caroline Rothstein)
Rothstein previously told The Guardian: “I went into the ticket counter. I checked in my luggage for London. I walked to the gate…and just as I was walking on the plane, they handed me a letter terminating the AAirpass.
“Why did they let me go to the gate? Why didn’t they tell me up front, which would have been the nice thing to do?”
But the approach American Airlines took to delivering the news was the least of the frequent flyer’s worries, as the firm then went on to launch a legal battle against the passenger for allegedly abusing the AAirpass.
Rothstein said he had only been given one rule when he bought the ticket – he couldn’t let anybody else use the pass.
He explained: “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.”
Even when someone offered him $5,000-a-week to use it, Rothstein says he refused.
But according to American Airlines, the stockbroker allegedly violated the terms of the AAirpass scheme by making a string of ‘speculative bookings’ for non-existent passengers under names including ‘Bag Rothstein’ and ‘Steven Rothstein Jr’.
The stockbroker was later accused of ‘fraudulent activity’ by the airline (Caroline Rothstein)
Along with several other flyers who thought they had a lifetime of plane journeys left to go, the airline accused him of breaching their contracts by offering strangers a seat on their companion pass or keeping it empty for more space.
The pass initially launched in 1981, and Bob Crandall, American Airline’s chairman and chief executive between 1985 and 1998, previously told the Los Angeles Times: “We thought originally it would be something that firms would buy for top employees.
“It soon became apparent that the public was smarter than we were.”
However, his wife and daughter claimed that Rothstein ‘never used a computer’ and that ‘every single reservation he ever made was made with an American Airlines paid employee’.
Rothstein also took legal action and went on to sue the airline, accusing it of breaking the deal by revoking his pass – and ultimately, the dispute was eventually settled out of court.
This version of the pass has since been discontinued.
