Just another cost cutting effort. These companies really need to take an example from southwest - I have NEVER had anything but praise for them.

Sounds like perhaps he was trying to use the passes to secure free flights for persons other than himself?

the link to the chicago breaking news at the bottom of the post is wrong, It just links back to consumerist

Only $200,000 each? If they fly a lot, this could be a really good deal.

@shaunhoffman: But this way, you will never have to leave the Consumerist. GENIUS!

@shaunhoffman:

I also can confirm this statement.

@dragonfire81:
Yeah, they don't really elaborate on that "speculative reservations" thing. Was he making reservations for himself and a companion, then only the companion shows up to take advantage of the free flight? I'd say that's pretty shady if that was the case.

Chris, I think the link to the Chicago Breaking News piece is:
[www.chicagobreakingnews.com]

Will they still honor those tickets to the moon that were sold in the late 60's/early 70's? Or was that Delta?

I feel absolutely awful for this man who apparently could afford to spend $400,000 on a lifetime airline pass.

Excuse me, I think my ramen noodles are done...

A speculative reservation would be if he told the airline he intended to fly with a companion in order to hold the extra seat, and then he wound up not flying with a companion. It's considered abuse because the airline could likely have sold the seat to someone else.

It seems to me that the airline has a couple of tough things to prove. First, they need to prove they would have sold that extra seat. Second, they need to prove they haven't already sold the extra seat to the man with the passes.

@Its The Beer Talking
"Excuse me, I think my ramen noodles are done..."

Hooray for $.10 Asian cuisine! A college students best friend!

I wonder if "speculate reservation" mean making multiple bookings for the same trip in order to cover various travel scenarios.

@Its The Beer Talking: Hmm, I bet, as a 24 year old, I've used at least 150k in airfare (well, most of it military) so it would be pretty easy to come out ahead, specially if you travel for business.

@almigi: Pan Am. Good luck with that.

Well, at least they didn't ditch the plane he was in into the Hudson River in an attempt to get rid of the "freeloader".

@Kyle: Maybe I can pay $10.00 to get free ramen for life.

Seriously, though, $400,000 in late 80's money? I wonder how many other lifetime passes were bought by the young and healthy that are still being used today.

@Hank Scorpio: No. From what I understand about spec reservations, he booked two seats then only HE showed up. The airline probably got mad because they felt like they could have sold the extra seat. Absent a contract provision saying this is not OK, I think the airline would have to prove not only that they would have sold the seat "but for" the man's failure to notify them in a timely manner that his companion wasn't coming, but also that they hadn't already sold the seat in the first place (to him).

@speedwell, avatar of snark: Come to think of it, it seems like a neat (but expensive) trick to get extra room next to you.

What if his "companion" was a large musical instrument?

@Its The Beer Talking: MMMM fax me some pobre goodness.

@Its The Beer Talking: If he traveled 4 - 8 times a month on AA (as I do) that would be conservatively around 60 flights per year (he stays home for vacations). Let's say for grins, late 80's means 1989 then we get to 660 flights. That works out at around $600 per flight and since these passes allow international too, he's already ahead & it keeps on going.

Sounds like, on more than one occasion, he booked two tickets but canceled the companion ticket at the last minute, thus depriving AA of possible revenue on that first class seat.

We don't know the terms/conditions in his contract re bookings & cancellations. He may have violated them.

@Its The Beer Talking: So are you saying if you had the $400K to spend on something you wouldn't complain if someone took your money and didn't hold up their end of the deal?

I suppose he's lucky the airline hasn't gone out of business yet. That's probably the biggest risk of the transaction.

@Kyle

$.10? Where? At Dominick's, Ramen is $.30/package, and at Jewel, it's $.33/package.

Ahh....life is sad that I know this stuff.

Does it matter if he didn't show up with a companion?

The contract probably said you can book 2 seats. Who knows, though.

What a sweet purchase by that guy, though.

I wonder what the total value of all the flights he was able to take by the time the pass was revoked... it would be really interesting if it was exactly the purchase price.

@speedwell, avatar of snark: Maybe he felt he needed the extra room, so he books the two seats and knows he is guaranteed to get the extra room when his imaginary companion doesn't show. Or maybe he actually just has an imaginary friend that always sneaks through security.

Not a bad deal, $400,000.

So if he and his companion each got on roughly 40 flights a year (not hard to do when you're not comin out of pocket for a ticket), over say 35 years, that comes out to like $142/flight.

Not bad.

AA better have had a clause in their terms of sale back in '88 that defines what they are trying to assert. Otherwise, a jury trial (and there would be a jury trial-no binding arbitration bullshit for individuals in those days) might just cost them plenty.

If I were sitting on a jury , I don't believe that the "speculative reservations" shuck and jive would pass the laugh/bladder control test.They would have a HUGE burden of proof to overcome...

@Its The Beer Talking: Do you always suffer from wealth envy?

Wow. $200,000 per person and he's had them for 20 years - that's unlimited first class travel for only $10,000/year.

@philipbarrett: But he could have invested that money in the stock market and until next month sometime would still have been ahead!

But let's be clear - I'd be pissed as hell if I paid $400K for two lifetime passes and then they took them away because I didn't show up with another person. I GAVE YOU ALMOST A HALF MILLION DOLLARS!!!

@Its The Beer Talking:

I feel absolutely AWFUL for you that you HAVE the money to purchase and eat ramen noodles.

Excuse me, I think my dirt sandwich is ready.

/Ethiopian

@speedwell, avatar of snark:
Ah, thanks. They should have explained that in the article.

@Its The Beer Talking: So, this is acceptable customer service? You must be a big fan of DRM, also. You know, paying for something and having it arbitrarily revoked.

@kyle and @slowtowhine:

Those ramen prices are terrible! It's right around $.09 per package. I usally get a 18 pack and pay right around a $1.50 for the box, which makes life nice.

Now the ever popular Cup-O-Noodles are more expensive, typically around 50 cents per cup. Not worth it for someone so poor.

His first pass was for 250K for himself. Two years later he paid 150K for another "companion" pass. Maybe "speculative" means he impressed the girl of the week with a first class flight anywhere she wanted and canceled those occasions where his prospective girl of the wasn't available. However I'm just "speculating" myself.

it takes some balls to buy a lifetime airline ticket, considering the lifetime of most airlines tends to be relatively brief. if he'd picked almost any of the other major airlines of the 80s (anyone remember Pan-Am and Eastern along with countless others?)he'd have really been stuck

Maybe "speculative reservations" refers to exactly what I would do if I had 2 passes to fly AA for life: RESELL!

I would let people know that for a fixed price, say $500 domestic, and $1500 international, they could fly first class as my "friend" anywhere in the world.

Then I would spend my days flying around the country. Average, say, 2 domestic and 1 international flight a week, and you're bringing in about $125,000/year. Professional airplane passenger, ftw!

If he paid $400K for 2 seats for anytime during his lifetime wasn't the seat next to him paid for regardless of whether a butt is in it or not?

That's actually a heckuva deal. There was a time (no longer, different job), when my _annual_ air travel bill was about $150k.

A roundtrip Chicago-London in first on American is more than $11k.

@Slow2Whine:

Its 15 cents for the pouches here and 25 for the cups

@Its The Beer Talking: Who cares how you feel about it? You're not an interested party and you have nothing to add to the conversation.

@Its The Beer Talking: Sorry you're not rich. Get over it. Just because a guy has money doesn't give the company right to steal it from him.

@Vanilla5: No shit. He paid for the reservation so he can do what he wants with it. Without contract terms saying he can't, this is pretty clear.

Don't forget this is 1980s dollars, so my guess is its about $800,000 is today's bucks.

I am surprised that they didn't revoke him earlier on some sort of 9/11 related balderdash.

The lifetime deal would have been especially sweet in the era prior to ID requirements for tickets. He could have made some serious cash from walk ups on sold out flights. Some of us remember when you could not only just walk up to the gate (after the lame security check) but buy a ticket from someone not able to fly in cash and then get on the plane. I think that changed around the time of Lockerbee and the need to link luggage to the person flying. Of course the airlines used it to kill this 2nd sale of tickets and charge rebooking fees.

Ah the freedom, sigh...