Actually, although they are named non-revenue flights I read in the AA employee magazine that the program actually makes 50 million dollars a year, if I recall correctly. This makes sense because we just flew my whole family of four to Tennesee TYS from LAX and paid about 1000 bucks (one D2 and three D3s). These seats would have gone empty, but instead the plane went out full. Although they only made about a third what 6 week in advance tickets would have cost, it is still a profit for them.