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.

[u/detectiverobert]

[u/Wonderful_Pomelo95]

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

[u/Agitated_Winner9568 → u/Wonderful_Pomelo95]

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.

[u/Ashmizen → u/Agitated_Winner9568]

I think that is probably worse than the fake names.

If it’s unlimited then unlimited is fine but like a buffet you have to eat what you order.

Ordering multiple seats flying at the same time is impossible and clearly fraud.

[u/Hammy_cashews → u/Ashmizen]

its not fraud if it isn't written into the contract.

if that was fraud they wouldn't have let him do it for 20 years before catching him on the other thing.

They knew it was a huge loss for them because they tried buying it back from him multiple times over the years i saw in a different article.