Then and only then would he answer questions about the rules, but the line became simply unusable so I said thanks and goodbye. Tempted to hang up, I went through it all again. Didn't the previous guy pass on the details that I gave him? Says the same thing - he needs an itinerary before he can help me. THEN he immediately says he has to transfer me to a colleague who can tell me the rules. I had to repeat everything at least twice due to the call quality. I explain that I need the rules to plan the itinerary, but then gave up and simply made one up (imagined dates and the cities I want to visit). No, he can't tell me any of that until I give him an itinerary. Terrible quality, but I explain that I am just after the basic rules, T&Cs of their airpass, such as min and max segments, whether open jaws are allowed if open jaw milages are counted, the basic pricing structure (total distance, total distance ranges, sector distances etc. You call the Australian 1800 number and the call, I'm sure, goes to Sth America somewhere. I had a stiff gin in hand and called LAN again, seeking details on their own airpass. apparently just means that your journey can comprise one or more sectors!! Wow. “They signed a contract,” he said, “and a contract’s a contract. “It’s hard to fight them.”īut that’s just what he’s doing to get his beloved AAirpass back. “Our country is almost captive to big companies who have incredible power to do whatever they want to do,” said Rothstein, who moved to New York in 2009. Rothstein filed a lawsuit and a federal judge in Illinois ruled against him for booking under phony names. “I feel betrayed,” Rothstein said, adding that he helped sell AAirpasses to firms and spoke at the carrier’s events. He went home in shock and didn’t get out of bed for days. 13, 2008, he checked in at Chicago O’Hare International Airport with a friend, a policeman hoping to return to his native Bosnia.Īn American Airlines employee gave him a letter saying his pass had been terminated due to fraudulent activity. It was on another goodwill trip that Rothstein was ultimately dethroned, and he had no idea it was coming. “I felt those random acts of kindness were exactly the sorts of things that we’re meant to do as people,” he said. If a stranded traveler was crying - such as one woman desperately trying to return to Bronxville, NY, because her children didn’t have a baby sitter - he’d offer her his companion seat. He gave away all of his 14 million air miles. Still, the charmed traveler paid his fortune forward. “But I wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, I went to Canada today.’ That would sound obnoxious.” He’d be home in time for dinner with his wife and friends.
“A very fun Saturday would be to wake up early and fly to Detroit, rent a car and go to Ontario, have lunch and spend $50 or $100 buying Canadian things,” Rothstein said. Is it as good as it looks The 85 per flight is only for flights between 0-150 miles. Some days he flew to Providence, RI, home of his alma mater, Brown University, just for a baloney-and-Swiss-cheese melt from a place called Geoff’s. Anyone familiar with the Europe Airpass offered by Star Alliance Seems like a really good deal (85 per flight within Europe if traveling from outside of Europe). He took his son to dozens of nationwide sporting events including the Yankees-Mets Subway Series. He booked flights under fake names such as “Bag Rothstein” if he didn’t know who his companion would be - a practice that the airline later used to accuse him of fraud.īecause of the AAirpass, his daughter went to boarding school in Switzerland.
Once a business meeting in Miami was postponed for a day, so he took a junket to Caracas. He traveled 18 times in July 2004 alone, jetting to Nova Scotia, Maine, London, Los Angeles and Denver. “I could go someplace and I wouldn’t even have to think about it,” he said.
#Airpass cost plus#
Rothstein, then living in Chicago, bought his AAirpass for $250,000, plus a companion ticket for $150,000 more. “I could just show up and get a seat.”īut in 2008, the airline accused him of fraud and snatched his bottomless boarding pass.Īmerican is reviewing its AAirpass program to find ways to terminate some of the 66 high-flying contracts that are costing the company millions of dollars a year. “ became a hero at the airline,” Rothstein, 61, a Manhattan investment banker, told The Post. He hopped planes to other cities just for a baseball game or a sandwich.Įverybody, even American’s CEO, knew his name. He used his power to fly hopeless strangers home, a friend to the Louvre, and a priest to Rome to meet the pope. He clocked more than 10 million miles and 10,000 flights. Steve Rothstein bought a golden ticket from American Airlines in 1987 - granting him a lifetime of unlimited travel. Steve Rothstein, who paid a mere $250,000 for his ticket in 1987, has made hundreds of overseas trips.
0 kommentar(er)
