r/CaughtMyEye • u/detectiverobert • 1d ago

In 1987, Steve Rothstein bought a lifetime unlimited first-class American Airlines pass for $250,000. He took over 10,000 flights, costing the airline an estimated $21 million. In 2008, American Airlines terminated his pass, accusing him of fraud for booking flights under fake names.

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u/Wonderful_Pomelo95 1d ago edited 1d ago

That's over 1.3 flights per day for 21 years straight. Either this man was a lunatic that lived a nightmare lifestyle, or this numbers are not right

49

u/Agitated_Winner9568 1d ago

One of the things he did is booking seats in multiple planes departing the same day at different times so he could come to the airport at any time and have a plane ready.

Unlike economy, airlines don’t overbook first class so it was a massive loss for them to have empty seats because of him.

11

u/StayTheFool 1d ago

See? That's pretty dumb. This story is definitely cherry picked in favor of the guy

3

u/Zeppelanoid 1d ago

Sounds like he did everything he could to piss off the airline and they eventually got him on a technicality

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u/Moist_Ordinary6457 1d ago

Not difficult, I'll never be on AA's side