Who among us does not wish to win a grand prize worth millions, this dream came true for a few lucky numbers of people, but one of those lucky ones took advantage of the matter in an excessive way, to the point that the matter reached the courts.

Buy the gold card

Back in the eighties of the last century, American Airlines was facing major financial problems and decided to launch a program of advertising and various offers to achieve profits and a quick flow of money.

The program also provided the opportunity to purchase a golden travel card that enables the lucky person to travel unlimited, for life, on the first class, and they called this special and rare offer the name “AAirpass”, which means “distinguished travel permit.”

It was an enticing show and, of course, expensive at the time, with a premium ticket priced at $250,000.

But in 1987, American citizen Steve Rothstein decided it was worth the investment, especially after a lucrative year as a stockbroker for the financial firm Bear Stearns.

Indeed, the man bought the open ticket for life, and even added to it a companion card of the same level, which was worth $ 150,000 at the time.

Steve also made changes to his contract with American Airlines, allowing a travel companion to move independently on a different flight just before or after him.

Steve was able to exploit the ticket in a genius way, as he was eventually able to recover the value of his ticket dozens of times, and he lived a travel experience that perhaps no one can ever match.

Steve was able to recover the value of his ticket dozens of times (Shutterstock)

An exceptional experience

By December 13, 2008, Steve Rothstein's two premium tickets had been withdrawn without warning.

After several years of purchasing it, the revenue department of American Airlines was watching the customer to see how much his golden tickets cost the airline, after they noticed a huge amount of lost revenue annually, which they estimated at that time at more than a million dollars annually.

After 20 years, they apparently saw that the premium show wasn't such a good idea in the first place.

As for the number of US citizens who bought the ticket, the company claimed that the validity and validity period of their tickets had expired to evade the offer, and said that the company would immediately void the offer.

By the time the airline voided the tickets, Steve had flown 10,000 flights and logged millions of miles.

His trips to Britain alone amounted to about 500 trips in 20 years.

"The man who traveled a lot"

The American New York Post indicates that the really impressive part is that the man did not benefit from the trips alone, but rather donated his travel miles to others.

Also on several occasions he would give up the chaperone's seat to random strangers who needed help, like a woman who wanted to go back to her kids because she couldn't get a babysitter after she left.

He also often traveled to dine in another country with his wife or one of his children, and they celebrated almost all family occasions in different countries around the world.

Caroline, the daughter of traveler Steve Rothstein, says in an article for the British newspaper "The Guardian", explaining her special childhood story because of these tickets, that her father often left every morning on a business trip or outing, and returned without knowing his family members That he had traveled and left the entire state or continent.

As a result, the entire family appeared on NBC's "Today Show" in 2003, and television and press interviews with Steve continued, until he became one of the most famous American personalities and was known as "the man who traveled a lot." .

Steve Rothstein did not benefit from the trips alone, but donated his travel miles to others (Pixels)

Cancellation on the grounds of fraud and stop the bleeding

According to the airline, Steve's flights totaled $21 million, so much so that in 2008, when he checked in at the Chicago airport, he got a letter from an airline employee that his pass had been revoked, and he had been over 30 million miles flown.

The airlines stated in their justification that "fraudulent activity" was the reason for the cancellation of the permit, taking advantage of the fact that he had traveled on more than one occasion with random people.

He had started booking flights under fictitious names because he did not know who would be his travel companion.

An investigation established that in less than 4 years, it had made 3,009 reservations for two seats, but later canceled 2,523 of those reservations and others to different names.

It was a blow to the man, who later told the New York Post, "I feel betrayed. They took my hobby and my life. They destroyed my personality."

Although in the following years he tried to sue the airline to recover the golden ticket, the judge ruled against him in the case known as "Steve Rothstein v. American Airlines".

Finally, after the financial hemorrhage that American Airlines was subjected to for years, due to a plan with ill-considered consequences in the long run, the golden ticket for life is still considered one of the most unsuccessful promotional ideas in corporate history at all.