It didn’t take long for American Airlines executives to realize that offering a pass that offered unlimited first-class travel for life was a bad idea.
Introduced in 1982 as a quick buck during a corporate crisis, the $250,000 AAirpass was every traveller’s dream. It allowed unlimited first-class travel for the holder, who could spend an additional $150,000 on a companion pass.
Billionaire shark tank investor Mark Cuban bought one with his first business fluke. Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays snapped a pass alongside computer magnate Michael Dell.
What AA bosses didn’t realize was how often the few dozen customers who bought the passes would use them.
It made 16 return flights to London in just 25 days, worth US$125,000. Another recorded 10,000 flights in 25 years. A third took 373 flights in a single year, which was 1.46 million miles and would have cost $2.4 million if they had paid for it like a regular customer.
Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays has an AAirpass for unlimited first class travel
Michael Dell, the billionaire founder of the computer company of the same name, has a permit
The top-of-the-range AAirpass granted unlimited first class travel for life
Since the AAirpass paid for itself several times over – and the holders even collected frequent flyer miles on their trips – American Airlines footed the bill. Wasting money and desperate to take action against the system, the company launched an investigation into its most productive users.
What followed were allegations of fraud, bitter lawsuits, and eventually the withdrawal of the program.
In the meantime, only a few happy customers have a valid AAirpass.
“The public was smarter than us”
The AAirpass program was created in 1981 when American Airlines was struggling with skyrocketing inflation and was trying to raise cash.
It offered multiple tiers to frequent flyers, ranging from unlimited travel for several years to lifetime first-class travel.
The price of $250,000 for the top-tier AAirpass equates to about $800,000 today, allowing for inflation. A lot of money, but consider that a last-minute, first-class return flight from London to New York costs around $21,000. Forty of these trips would cover the costs.
Mark Cuban, the Shark Tank star and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, who bought an AAirpass with his first business fluke, said he “went everywhere” and “partyed like a madman.”
Bob Crandall, AA’s chairman and CEO from 1985 to 1998, told the LA Times in 2012 that the company “originally thought it was something that companies would buy for top employees.”
“It soon became apparent that the public was smarter than us,” admitted Crandall.
American stops selling the AAirpass after it cost the airline millions
Mark Cuban said acquiring such a company was one of the “most fun and best business decisions I’ve ever made.”
He bought an AAirpass in 1990 when the total cost with a companion pass was reportedly $600,000. Cuban said in an interview he spent $125,000 on the pass and voucher.
The Cuban “went everywhere” and partied “like a madman”. The pass was so prestigious that it reportedly allowed the holder to replace another passenger on an entire flight. Rumor has it that the Cuban had basketball star Magic Johnson repelled from a flight with his pass.
The entrepreneur calculated that the cost of the pass meant he could fly for 12 cents a mile with lifetime use. He is now worth an estimated five billion dollars, owns his own private jet – and is said to have given the passport to his father or a friend.
AMERICAN RETURNS
Former Bear Stearns stockbroker Steven Rothstein bought his AAirpass in 1987. Already an avid jet setter, the ticket was a given. Two years later, he added the companion pass.
Over a 25-year period, he booked 1,000 first-class flights to New York City, 500 each to San Francisco, Las Angeles and London, and hundreds more to destinations such as Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney.
Steve Rothstein bought an AAirpass in 1987 and the airline estimated the cost of his flights would be $1 million a year. He later had it terminated for alleged “fraudulent use.”
Rothstein would take relatives with him, offer his escort ticket to strangers at the airport, and use it to reserve a seat for his luggage — or simply to avoid having to sit next to someone else. In total, he covered more than 30 million miles – the equivalent of more than 40 round trips to the moon.
Texas marketing guru Jacques Vroom bought it in 1990 for $356,000 and also included a companion coupon.
Vroom has clocked more than 40 million miles on the pass. His travels include round trips to Japan and Europe without an overnight stay, cross-country flights to visit family for the day, and like Rothstein, he booked trips for strangers.
As Vroom, Rothstein and others gave new meaning to the “jet-set lifestyle,” airline executives realized that the passport had become a very costly mistake.
In 2007, AA initiated an investigation into the top-productive AAirpass users, each of which it estimated costed the company more than $1 million a year, focusing on Rothstein and Vroom.
Both had their passports revoked for “fraudulent use”. AA claimed this included booking flights they never intended to take, inventing fake passengers on the companion ticket, or allowing others to use their AAirpass for cash.
Rothstein’s passport was immediately revoked in 2008 when he was ambushed at check-in at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport with a letter accusing him of “fraudulent conduct.” He said the decision “stole my personality… my love.”
Vroom was similarly fired after arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport to catch a flight in 2008.
Bitter litigation and the demise of AAIRPASS
Faced with the loss of their most prized possession, Rothstein and Vroom fought back.
Both filed separate lawsuits against American Airlines, arguing they did not breach the contracts they signed when they bought the passes.
Rothstein – whose alleged tricks included booking companion seats for his luggage for the wrong person named “Bag Rothstein” – claimed all his bookings were made over the phone through AA agents.
Some of them had become so close to him that they became friends — though he thought he’d never met them in person.
Tom Stuker, 69, of New Jersey, has earned 23 million frequent flyer miles with his AAirpass
Stuker, a married father of two, bought a lifetime pass from United in 1990 for $290,000. He still holds a valid passport, although other customers have lost their passports due to allegations of fraud
“When I bought the AAirpass, they told me in no uncertain terms that there was only one rule: I must not give anyone the AAirpass,” Rothstein said in an article about his AAirpass written by his daughter, Caroline.
Vroom told the LA Times that while he accepted money from some associates, it was for “his business advice.”
Lawyers for Vroom and Rothstein argued they did not commit fraud and said the loose contracts did not prohibit the way they used the passports.
“It looks like the airline was looking for an excuse to get rid of my client,” Rothstein’s attorney, Gary Soter, told the Times.
Not every customer who bought a pass violated their contracts with American.
American stopped selling the unlimited AAirpass in 1994. Tom Stuker, 69, of New Jersey, has earned 23 million frequent flyer miles with his AAirpass and continues to document his trips on Instagram.
He recently shared his top tips for air travelers, including never checking bags and pretending you know flight attendants.
The program continued in a different form for almost three decades, offering perks and discounts to frequent flyers before the airline stopped accepting memberships in November 2022.