American Airlines offers Silicon Valley exec $2billion ticket for flight from Seattle to Florida
‘Is American now a partner of SpaceX!’ Silicon Valley exec tried to change his AA flight from Seattle to Palm Beach and one of the options emerged as a ticket for more than $2 billion
- American Airlines quoted a man $2,147,483,647 for a trip from Seattle to Florida
- Software developer Shaun Walker tweeted an image of the skyrocketing amount and joked that American Airlines was teaming up with SpaceX for a layover on the moon
- Walker speculated that a glitch in the American Airlines system led to the prize
A Florida software developer got a ticket price of heavenly proportions while trying to change an American Airlines flight.
Shaun Walker, a developer who has worked for numerous Silicon Valley technology companies, including Microsoft, said the American Airlines app offered him a flight worth more than $2 billion as he looked at alternatives to a trip from Seattle to Palm Beach.
Walker tweeted a photo of the ridiculous amount — with one flight option costing $639.31, and another costing a whopping $2,147,483,647.00 — and jokingly wrote “maybe American Airlines is now partnering with SpaceX ;).”
The developer further speculated that a glitch in American Airline’s pricing algorithm caused the problem, but not before joking “the second option includes inflation.”
A SpaceX rocket for flight. Walker jokes that American Airlines was working with the commercial spaceflight carrier
“I was looking for alternatives to change an American Airlines flight today… and was presented with these options!” Walker wrote, showing a screenshot of the two flight options.
The $639 flight included two stops in Indianapolis and Charlotte over the course of an 11-hour, 23-minute journey, while the $2-billion option had only one stopover in Dallas Fort Worth and took a total of seven hours, 42 minutes.
Walker’s added a request from American’s app inviting him to “provide feedback to help us make improvements.”
“I actually live in Jupiter, Florida (just north of Palm Beach)…” Walker wrote. “Maybe American Airlines thought I wanted to fly to the planet Jupiter.”
He also joked that the flight included a zero-gravity layover and included a photo of the Apollo 11 moon landing, before joking, “Apollo 11 actually costs less.”
Twitter users quickly jumped in, joking “The peanuts cost extra,” and others joked that American asked Walker to buy the plane for the flight, and even the entire airline.
“So they let you be a copilot for that amount?” a user wrote.
“Does Microsoft Flight Simulator count as a pilot experience?” Walker replied.
American Airlines did not respond to requests for comment.
Walker has worked as a software developer for a number of companies over the past three decades, according to his LinkedIn, and has even received a number of Microsoft’s “Most Valuable Professional” awards for his work over the years.
Shaun Walker has been a software developer for numerous companies over three decades
