30 years ago, one could buy a pass for lifelong, unlimited first-class travel with American Airlines. Now American Airlines is suing people who did.

There are people who have purchased tickets earning them first class travel for life on American Airlines. As you might imagine, a lifelong first class pass is a pretty sweet thing. You can fly anywhere any time for any reason- all in first class. These passes, when they were available, had cost more than $350,000 and allowed the owner to have a free +1. 

Some of the men who still own them have surpassed 30 million miles in flight. But unfortunately American Airlines isn’t too happy with the 66 people doing things like this. These people have been costing AA millions of dollars, and as you may know, the airlines haven’t been doing so well lately. 

To try and cut down on the owners of these passes, AA started investigating them to try and catch them doing something wrong. As a result, many of the owners were taken to court or had their passes revoked for some fairly bogus claims of “fraudulent behavior.” 

The behavior in question included things like reserving seats but not taking the flight, or using a +1 on a stranger. Many of these cases are still ongoing, as this only broke in May 2012, but it’s truly sad to see AA covering its mistakes in such an ugly way. 

(Source)