The daughter of a man who faced legal action after causing an airline to lose $21 million has shared the poignant reason behind his decision to book 2,000 empty seats.
In 1981, American Airlines introduced an offer of free first-class tickets for life to anyone willing to pay $250,000 upfront.
This move was intended to help the airline recover from financial difficulties.
A total of 66 individuals purchased the lifetime pass, known as the AAirpass, with Steven Rothstein being one of them.
From 1987 to 2008, Steven’s frequent flights with American Airlines resulted in the company losing over $21 million in profits.
During these 21 years, Steven, who was a stockbroker, amassed 30 million miles across 10,000 flights with the airline, all funded by his initial $250k investment.
It wasn’t until decades later that the airline recognized the financial impact of Steven’s travel habits.
In 2008, they revoked his AAirpass and initiated a lawsuit, not for his personal usage but on grounds of fraud. They accused him of reserving seats for fictitious passengers with names like ‘Bag Rothstein’ and ‘Steven Rothstein Jr’ and booking flights he had no intention of taking.
Steven also confessed to sharing his ticket with those in need over the course of the more than 20 years he possessed the unlimited flights.
In 2019, Steven’s daughter, Caroline Rothstein, offered an explanation for her father’s actions regarding the 2,000 ’empty’ flight seats he reserved over the years.
Writing for Narratively, as featured in the Guardian, Caroline recounted reviewing approximately 80 court documents related to the case. She discovered from an American Airlines senior analyst that ‘of the 3,009 flight segments Dad booked for himself from May 2005 to December 2008, he either canceled or was a “no-show” for 84% of those reservations.’
When she inquired about the reason, Steven disclosed that it was a coping mechanism following the death of his teenage son, Josh, in 2002. Josh, 15, lost his life after being struck by a car while walking.
Steven explained: “When everyone was asleep in the house, and I had nobody to talk to, and I was lonely about Josh’s death, I would telephone American Airlines reservations and speak to the agents about who knows what for an hour and then at the end, they’d ask me, oh, what reservation was I calling about to make, and I would say, ‘Oh yeah, I need to go to San Francisco next week’.
“I really didn’t need to go to San Francisco. I was just very confused and very lonely and I was calling American Airlines because they were logical people for me to speak to. They knew me. I knew them. I knew their names. I knew their lives.”
In an email to Caroline, Steven explained his preference for keeping the seat next to him empty, saying: “I was incoherent, crying several times daily, drinking liquor which I never did before and if I got in a seat I didn’t want to explain why I was crying to anyone.”
Ultimately, American Airlines and Rothstein reached a settlement outside of court, ending the legal dispute.