4 ms·

I dunno. Seems a bit harsh. These are not unlike other open ended packages where the seller expects to come out ahead, on average. Slightly further afield, it

by netcan 11y ago

I dunno. Seems a bit harsh. These are not unlike other open ended packages where the seller expects to come out ahead, on average. Slightly further afield, it reminds me of yesterday's thread on reedit. They revoked their unlimited free speech policy, so that they could stop hosting some really nasty stuff. Some people said "but you promised unlimited free speech forever." I don't know if there is a clean judgement you can make. promises should be made in good faith and kept. If a company makes promises that it can't keep, then what. Sometimes you hit a sort of promise bankruptcy. I think that's the case here. On a complete tangent… The owners of these passes are probably an interesting bunch. (A) I think their brains are wired for quirky beat the system thinking. (B) You have to have a mind for opportunistic life hacks, in order to jump on this.

danieltillett 11y ago
Yes I was rather harsh [1]. The honourable thing for AA to have done would have been to buy back the tickets at their current value, not try and find a way to weasel out. 1. I am biased as I have hated AA ever since they decided to put me on some secret list (the SSSS list) for no reason which means anytime I flew AA I would be put through the wringer. Edit. For those interested here is the details about the ssss list [2]. I am not sure what my "crime" was, but I suspect it was because I often flew one way (around the world tickets). The crazy thing is it is airline specific as I am not on the list with any other airline. 2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSSS_rating https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSSS_rating
- simoncion 11y ago
  > I have hated AA ever since they decided to put me on some secret list (the SSSS list) Can you prove that AAL did this? If you can't, then this is absolutely not the fault of AAL. This is the fault of DHS or TSA. Peruse the various air travel articles on the papersplease.org blog for more info. (I wish I could give you good search terms, but some recent relevant articles don't contain the term "SSSS". Maybe try "Secondary Screening"?
  - danieltillett 11y ago
    How could I possibly prove AA put me on this list? All I can say is only AA has me on this list, so this would suggest AA put me on their own SSSS list. It means that when I fly I actively avoid AA if at all possible. I haven’t flown with AA for around 5 years so I don’t know if I am still on the list, but I am not on it with any other airline. The worst episode I had was when the TSA forgot to mark off my boarding pass after I went through security. At the boarding gate the AA staff freaked out, called security, and in front of the other passengers I was dragged out of the airport and back through security. I was then left with running through the airport to catch my flight. I just managed to get back to the gate before the plane left.
notahacker 11y ago
It makes some sense to offer open ended packages, but not when the value of the open ended packages is far too high for anyone to consider buying it if they didn't expect to significantly overuse it. And $250k really isn't that much money in terms of first class tickets, or in the scope of an airline's cost base. I suspect the owners of the passes were more characterised by having the sort of occupations where they could effortlessly stump up free cash, and a lot of time or requirement to travel, and probably a fondness for first class too. Most people with a mind for opportunistic life hacks don't have $250k to invest in future airline tickets.
- simoncion 11y ago
  Remember that this is $250k in early 1981 money. Today, that would be $~661k. The folks who splashed out for the "travel with a friend" option paid a little more than a million dollars in 2015 money.
Lawtonfogle 11y ago
> If a company makes promises that it can't keep, then what. If the company is allowed to break the promise, then it benefits at the cost of trust. Not merely trust in the company, but trust in general. This ends up being a cost on all other entities (actual or legal) who will ever depend on trust. In short, it is a form of theft.

by netcan 11y ago

danieltillett 11y ago

Yes I was rather harsh [1]. The honourable thing for AA to have done would have been to buy back the tickets at their current value, not try and find a way to weasel out. 1. I am biased as I have hated AA ever since they decided to put me on some secret list (the SSSS list) for no reason which means anytime I flew AA I would be put through the wringer. Edit. For those interested here is the details about the ssss list [2]. I am not sure what my "crime" was, but I suspect it was because I often flew one way (around the world tickets). The crazy thing is it is airline specific as I am not on the list with any other airline. 2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSSS_rating https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSSS_rating

simoncion 11y ago
> I have hated AA ever since they decided to put me on some secret list (the SSSS list) Can you prove that AAL did this? If you can't, then this is absolutely not the fault of AAL. This is the fault of DHS or TSA. Peruse the various air travel articles on the papersplease.org blog for more info. (I wish I could give you good search terms, but some recent relevant articles don't contain the term "SSSS". Maybe try "Secondary Screening"?
- danieltillett 11y ago
  How could I possibly prove AA put me on this list? All I can say is only AA has me on this list, so this would suggest AA put me on their own SSSS list. It means that when I fly I actively avoid AA if at all possible. I haven’t flown with AA for around 5 years so I don’t know if I am still on the list, but I am not on it with any other airline. The worst episode I had was when the TSA forgot to mark off my boarding pass after I went through security. At the boarding gate the AA staff freaked out, called security, and in front of the other passengers I was dragged out of the airport and back through security. I was then left with running through the airport to catch my flight. I just managed to get back to the gate before the plane left.

notahacker 11y ago

It makes some sense to offer open ended packages, but not when the value of the open ended packages is far too high for anyone to consider buying it if they didn't expect to significantly overuse it. And $250k really isn't that much money in terms of first class tickets, or in the scope of an airline's cost base. I suspect the owners of the passes were more characterised by having the sort of occupations where they could effortlessly stump up free cash, and a lot of time or requirement to travel, and probably a fondness for first class too. Most people with a mind for opportunistic life hacks don't have $250k to invest in future airline tickets.

simoncion 11y ago
Remember that this is $250k in early 1981 money. Today, that would be $~661k. The folks who splashed out for the "travel with a friend" option paid a little more than a million dollars in 2015 money.

Lawtonfogle 11y ago

> If a company makes promises that it can't keep, then what. If the company is allowed to break the promise, then it benefits at the cost of trust. Not merely trust in the company, but trust in general. This ends up being a cost on all other entities (actual or legal) who will ever depend on trust. In short, it is a form of theft.