Think
about how much you paid for your last airline flight. Then imagine how
much an unlimited-use lifetime first-class airline pass would be worth
-one in which you could take
a companion of your choice on each
flight. American introduced the AAirpass in 1981 for $250,000. The
price later went up, and the companion pass was extra, but it was always
worth more to those who flew a lot. Steven Rothstein and Jacques Vroom
each bought passes early in the program and flew everywhere -all the
time.
In the 2009 film “Up in the Air,” the loyal American
business traveler played by George Clooney was showered with attention
after attaining 10 million frequent flier miles.
Rothstein and Vroom were not impressed.
“I can’t even remember when I cracked 10 million,” said Vroom, 67, a
big, amiable Texan, who at last count had logged nearly four times as
many. Rothstein, 61, has notched more than 30 million miles.
But all the miles they and 64 other unlimited AAirpass holders racked
up went far beyond what American had expected. As its finances began
deteriorating a few years ago, the carrier took a hard look at the
AAirpass program.
Heavy users, including Vroom and Rothstein, were costing it millions of dollars in revenue, the airline concluded.
This is clearly a case of launching a promotion without crunching the
numbers, or thinking “what could possibly go wrong?” American Airlines
investigated both Vroom and Rothstein for fraudulent use of their
passes. After raising the price of the unlimited passes to $3 million
(with an extra $2 million for a companion pass), no more were sold. The
airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last November.
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