Originally Posted by
ctownflyer
That's my problem with this. They made giant media events to celebrate Tom. They named planes after him. They did not have to do any of that, and indeed, if they truly didn't want the pass disclosed, then they should not have done any of that. Was he supposed to lie when an interviewer inevitably asked point-blank how much he spent on UA tickets?
Or was UA just leading down a path of entrapment that would cause him to forfeit his pass by disclosing it to the media?
Even ships named after you. I find this all quite sad.
I agree with you. Any reasonable person with a knowledge of the airline industry in the 1980s would have already surmised that Tom had a pass. Furthermore, without the pass, his flying would have been spread across multiple airlines, as his clients could have insisted upon cheapest fare, which means he would never have made 24MM.