Man Has Lifetime First Class Ticket Revoked Mid-Flight After Costing Airline $33 Million

• American Airlines sold a lifetime first-class AAirPass in the ’80s.
• Over three decades, one flyer flew an estimated 30 million miles.
• Today true lifetime or unlimited flight passes have all but disappeared.

In the 1980s, American Airlines was in financial strife and needed a big idea. What they came up with was… bold. Sell a lifetime first-class ticket — the AAirpass — for US$250,000 (around A$400,000 in today’s money), promising unlimited travel for life. For a time, it worked. Then came Steven Rothstein.

A successful investment banker from Chicago, Rothstein wasn’t just buying a pass, he was buying freedom. No bag limits. No blackout dates. No fares. Just show up and fly. He even shelled out another $150,000 for a companion pass, allowing him to bring a guest, any guest in first class, every single time.

Over the next 30 years, Rothstein absolutely rinsed it. He flew more than 30 million miles, taking hundreds of spontaneous trips: breakfast in London, dinner in Tokyo, weekend jaunts across the States. He sent friends on holidays, used his pass to fly clients around, and regularly booked multiple seats just to keep the row empty. American Airlines allegedly lost over $21 million thanks to his sky-high antics.

But in 2008, the party ended. Rothstein arrived at the gate in Chicago, bound for London, only to be quietly told his AAirpass had been revoked effective immediately. No flight. No explanation. Just… grounded.

American Airlines accused him of “fraudulent behaviour,” citing over 2,000 no-show bookings and a pattern of manipulation. Rothstein denied it all, claiming the pass had no restrictions. A lawsuit followed, but it was quietly settled out of court. The terms? Still undisclosed.

“I did nothing wrong,” Rothstein later said. “But I do have mixed feelings about ever buying that ticket.”

Rothstein wasn’t the only one to squeeze every drop from the AAirpass. Another infamous flyer, Michael Dell’s former right-hand man Jacques Vroom (yes, really), was also cut off after racking up more than 50 trips a month. Eventually, American Airlines shut down the program completely. No more lifetime passes. No more unlimited skies.

Other airlines briefly flirted with similar offers, but most learned the same painful lesson: giving customers a blank cheque for first class is very bad business.

Today, only a handful of “unlimited” passes still exist and they come with enough caveats to make your head spin. United once offered a lifetime pass (used by Tom Stuker, who’s flown over 23 million miles), but those deals are extinct. The best you can hope for now is a fixed-term budget version: WizzAir’s annual “All You Can Fly” pass for €599, or Frontier’s monthly deals but they include major restrictions like no luggage, no seat choice, and last-minute booking windows.

Lifetime airline passes were never just about travel. They were about ultimate access. The idea that you could hop on a plane at a moment’s notice fly across the world and back all in a lie-flat bed with Champagne on tap.

No queues. No costs. No compromises.

But those days are gone. In an era of yield management algorithms, dynamic pricing, and data-driven efficiency, airlines simply can’t afford that kind of open-ended generosity. Even points redemptions are being squeezed harder than your knees in economy.

So if you’re dreaming of buying your way into the first-class lounge forever, read the fine print. Then read it again. Because in 2025, there’s no such thing as a truly unlimited ticket only clever marketing with a lot of blackout dates.