American Airlines once sold a lifetime pass for unlimited first-class travel. They soon regretted it:
In September 2007, a pricing analyst reviewing international routes focused the airline’s attention on how much the AAirpass program was costing, company emails show.
‘We pay the taxes,’ a revenue management executive wrote in a subsequent email. ‘We award AAdvantage miles, and we lose the seat every time they fly.’
Cade was assigned to find out whether any AAirpass holders were violating the rules, starting with those who flew the most.
She pulled years of flight records for Rothstein and Vroom and calculated that each was costing American more than $1 million a year.
“The Frequent Fliers Who Flew Too Much.” — Ken Bensinger, Los Angeles Times
Get the Longreads Weekly Email