A5 Travel Valued at $3 Million

Hutto-Blake's Retirement Perk was Valued at $3 Million

The idea that APFA's last union president was rewarded with a $3 million retirement perk is concerning. While the Glading administration has brushed this off by calling it a "loophole in corporate policy," that would be like saying that the company made a $3 million mistake in favor of an employee. That doesn't happen at American. If American makes a financial mistake in favor of an employee, that money is taken back immediately once it's discovered. We believe that A5 retirement was a gift for siding with AMR against flight attendants in defense of the 2003 Restructuring Agreement.


MARCH 13, 2009
American Airlines Sued Over Travel Pass
By Matt Phillips
The Wall Street Journal

We meant to get to this one earlier this week, but the week flew by. Anyway, a man is suing American Airlines in Chicago for allegedly revoking the use of a pass he paid $400,000 in the 1980s. The pass gave him the right to fly first-class anywhere in the world with a companion for the rest of his life. Here's what the Associated Press says:

A man who paid about $400,000 to fly first-class anywhere in the world with a companion for the rest of his life is suing American Airlines for revoking that right.

Steven Rothstein, who lived in Wilmette at the time, paid nearly $250,000 in 1987 for the lifetime pass, and an additional $150,000 two years later to take a companion along with him during his flights.

Rothstein on Tuesday filed a $7 million lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court, claiming the airline illegally revoked the passes in December after alleging he fraudulently used the flight passes by making "speculative reservations" for companions.

American Airlines no longer sells lifetime pass, and Rothstein claims the alternative cost of purchasing first-class tickets for the rest of his life would cost $7 million.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the $7 million figure comes from what "the suit claims is today's fair-market value for the AAirpass. The suit is factoring in the airliner no longer sells the lifetime pass, the last lifetime pass sold for $3 million in 2004, and the alternative price purchasing first-class tickets for the rest of Rothstein's life would cost $7 million."