Thanks for the clarification.

Rumors, true or not, often reflect a shared line of thinking within a group. One rumor had Bethune traveling and a passenger in first class mistreated a flight attendant before the door closed. He confronted the passenger and asked how much he paid for his ticket. The man told him and also said who are you? Bethune said I'm the CEO, peeled off many hundred dollar bills approximately equal to the ticket price, gave them to him and said now get off my plane. Great story. But did this really happen? Maybe. But the repetition of the story within the employee groups reflected the common perception at the time that there was someone in charge who cared about his employees. The $500m left on the table may be in the same category. I think the pilots felt they could have done better.