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/IamJusticus 22h ago

How in the world did they lose $21 million from him taking flights? Were they chartering Air Force One every time he wanted to fly?

Can someone explain how one man taking up one seat, not matter how many flights they took, added up to $21 million in losses?

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u/AddictedToOxygen 22h ago

He had a companion ticket also. That's 20k flight tickets theoretically. 21m/20k is ~1k average per first class ticket. Math seems very reasonable, especially given first class tickets are like 10k each nowadays.

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u/jdelta85 16h ago

MAAAAYBE Long Haul International First/Biz class lie flat seat RT. MAYBE. Depends on the route. A domestic AA first class seat is nowhere remotely close to $10k dude lol

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u/Any-Worldliness-679 16h ago

Actually, some absolutely are. I've seen LAX-JFK First Class (not business, FIRST), that were listed at over $10k, one way. Lots of celebrities carried in that cabin.

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u/account_not_valid 15h ago

Add in that there were probably many flights that he booked and then didn't turn up for.

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u/EnvironmentalOwl4361 11h ago

My business travel costs over 10k/ticket routinely.

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u/MaleficentPapaya4768 9h ago

Well now I feel better about my $350 commuter flight between Seattle and San Francisco.

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u/Early_Money2576 1h ago

He also booked multiple flights to the same destination, so he can arrive at the airport at any point and have a flight ready. When he doenst show up for those flights, airline was losing money on those too.

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u/IamJusticus 22h ago

That makes sense, and that's my bad. I'm so stuck in my little bubble that my mind wasn't even considering the cost of traveling overseas.

Dumb of him to throw try to scam an already good deal, but sounds like he got his money out of it in the long run.