The frequent fliers who flew too much
You have to prepare for how the worst user will abuse your system, and American didn't. They should have done the calculations based on a worst case scenario.<p>I've heard of people refer to it as the "Penis Problem", referring to Chatroullette's inability to stop perverts from exposing themselves on their service: lesson is that whatever service you provide you need to think about that 1% of the population will abuse it, and possibly ruin it for everyone else.<p>And this is just plain stupid for not having any opt-out clauses, or ability to revoke a pass, or setting any cancellation ground rules. Seems like they could have done a lot to stop this from getting out of hand, but were too incompetent to do so.