Yes, it would be absurd. (And the minimum subscription is 6 round trips per year, not 3.) In addition to the 12% statistic from that NY Times article, 53% of Americans never fly; in other words, the average American never flies. The Bay Area isn’t typical, but I see no reason to believe it’s so atypical as to move the average person from never flying to flying multiple times per year. And even if flights are $12 each way, most people don’t even think of flying — I bet (without looking it up) that most of the traffic from the Bay Area to Vegas (and moreso LA to Vegas) goes by car, not plane.

In 2019-2020, the average Bay Area resident spent $11,139 on transportation, $9300 of that on private vehicles, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (86.2% of transportation expenses, much lower than the 94% national average). Much of that remaining 13.8% was likely local public transport (which I would assume is the main reason Bay Area private vehicle expenses are a lower percentage than the national average). That doesn’t leave much for flying.

So important to remember that air travelers is always a small market in terms of fraction of the population. Of course, so is potential Audi buyers; it’s not like there isn’t money to be made. Where I do agree: there probably is a decent number of people for whom this subscription makes sense. But it’s almost certainly a narrow segment of a narrow segment of the total population of California.