LA Times: The frequent fliers who flew too much [lifetime AAirpass withdrawn]
 

Re: AAirpass

I wish I had bought one...
The link

so do I.

Wow, what a fun story to read....

a bit hard to wrap around this one. It seems like the 'fraud' AA is accusing a couple of these folks of is in fact allowed based on when they bought the passes.

The letter from Crandall shows a difference to the current regime…

https://www.documentcloud.org/docume...rothstein.html

didn't even know such thing exist.. is/was aa the only one offering it?

Wow, has it already been three years since that lawsuit was filed? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ss-merged.html

That is extortion. I hope his account was unfrozen.

He didn't comment. Probably bc AA settled and gave him 10m AA miles. :p

Wow! Great article. It must have been fun while it lasted. And it sure does sound like AA worked to find a way to get rid of its annoying liability. :rolleyes:

Deb

a radio guy in dallas commuted daily dfw-ord-dfw to do a show there & 1 in dallas in the afternoon.....used airpass, same flights, same seats mon thru fri....charlie joiner I think, but my memory might be off....

a couple of people i know had them a one time...

a bit out of my league....

Great article.

Can't blame AA for having a special task force to monitor AAirPass holders to watch them like a hawk. The tactics are quite questionable however. But I imagine Corporate Security is much like a Communist Government.

What a deal though, fly as much as you want AND earn miles?!? What was the incentive for them not to fly? You could easily earn back the investment that you put in with miles earned.

Close, Tom Joyner. Wow, 8,000 miles each week.
http://www.answers.com/topic/tom-joyner

Still got my lifetime AAirpass. But it's not unlimited. Bought it in 1994 and the plan I paid for was 55,000 miles per year. Price was about $155,000 at the time. Had to look at where I (and eventually AA) would wind up in the cosmos of time. For one thing, I work hard as a surgeon (still do) and can only fly so much. Also, at the time, the highest elite level was Plat---exp did not exist. So 55,000 mi/yr seemed about right for me, individually.

The other thing was that one could roll over miles that weren't used in a year to subsequent years. So right now I'm sitting on 500,000 + actual AAirpass miles to use. Obviously I use other carriers as the need arises. Back in 1994, AA had a busy hub in SJC. No more. Also, the "lifetime" of the AAirpass could well be AA's, not mine. At any rate, they're still honoring it during bankruptcy.

UA had a competing plan (still does) called Pass Plus and I contemplated getting that, because AA gave mileage credit for both the companion and the AAirpass flyer to the AAirpass flyer's account---UA did not. I bought a couple of 5-yr Pass Plus plans, though. It's hard to argue with UA's dominance of air traffic in the SF Bay area. And, IMHO, the single most transforming event in the airline world will always be Sept 11, 2011.

So I have had a good experience with AAirpass. Never felt that I was gaming the system like some of the cases discussed here. In fact, I've never done a mileage run in my life. Have got 7 mm, including credit card bills, on AA in my time. Hope the pass continues to work.

Not only do you earn miles for your flights, you also earn miles (including status miles) for the flights of your companion if you bought the companion option. That means that fliers like FullFare can earn EXP on as little as 33,334 BIS miles each year.

Never knew this exist ... Smart move by passengers..