My father had a lifelong ticket to fly anywhere. Then they took it away

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/sep/19/american-airlines-aairpass-golden-ticket

by crivabene • 3 years ago

7 4 3 years ago

I’m not saying Dad was a saint. Just that his AAirpass was about more than solipsistic travel. It allowed him to build relationships. And it allowed other people to access the world like he did. That’s what Dad’s AAirpass and ultra-elite flying status yielded for him: lifelong bonds.

giving access to the world like he had? it did no such thing.

the pass was $250k in the early 80s. that is a tremendous amount of money for a 37 year old in current year.

this was an individual, a family, so far removed from commoners that the parents had it in the contract to fly on separate planes, one after the other. lest both parents be lost in an accident.

what a luxury, to be able to even pause to consider such contingency planning. let alone to have the means to pursue it.

while the airline was wrong, this is no sob story.

yellowapple• 3 years ago

I'm with you. AA could've and should've handled this differently, say by actually communicating with him and narrowing the terms rather than cancelling outright... but I have a hard time feeling much sympathy for someone rich enough to blow multiple orders of magnitude more than the average American's life savings (even before inflation) on an unlimited-ride ticket for one of the most destructive modes of transportation in terms of carbon footprint.

jeffrallen• 3 years ago

As I read the article I came to suspect what he admitted at the end, that he was misusing the airline as part of a psychological dependency, as a way of coping with loss. Sad all around: AA did the normal sociopathic corporate crap, and he also was not supported by society in order to heal properly.

sfn42• 3 years ago

Not to mention:

of the 3,009 flight segments Dad booked for himself from May 2005 to December 2008, he either canceled or was considered a “no-show” for 84% of those reservations. During the same time period, he booked 2,648 flight segments for travel companions, and 2,269 were either canceled or a no-show.

The guy booked 5659 flights in 3 years (that's basically 5 per day) and almost didn't show up to any of them.

I don't really care about anything else, I even stopped reading at that point. I'm on AAs side here, fuck that guy. Of course they're going to cancel you for misuse, that is clear and severe misuse by any standard.

My father had a lifelong ticket to fly anywhere. Then they took it away

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