Not Your Average Air Travel Stories: Week of Feb. 4
A really bad belly ache, no-kiddies quiet zone and not-too-smart smokers – a blizzard of bizarre stories awaits.
ATM belly: Police arrest woman at a Panama airport then recover more than $31,000 from inside her stomach. That’s right, inside. As for how it got there (or got out), no one’s saying. She was nabbed after exhibiting “suspicious behavior.” I’ll bet.
Stay home: Nemo blizzard grounds thousands of flights but the good news is, no change fees. When the snow ends, see FareCompare – we’ll get you outta town on a cheap flight.
Shut up, kids! AirAsiaX now has child-free quiet zones (yes, there’s a fee for that). Reporter asks, “How did it take so long to come up with such a great idea?” It didn’t. Rick Seaney already told us about pet bans and baby-free zones.
No pants rule: Get your mind out of the gutter – Asiana’s female flight attendants won the right to wear pants instead of skirts. Hope their new duds aren’t quite as zany as these airline uniforms.
Smoking delay: Mom, dad and adult son must have missed the no smoking signs on their Canadian jet because they lit up anyway. Pilot diverted to Bermuda and the three were arrested. And no, you won’t get away with this on a U.S. plane, either.
Broken dreams: 787 still grounded. The New Yorker’s take: “[Boeing] turned over the design, the engineering, and the manufacture of entire sections of the [Dreamliner] to some 50 ‘strategic partners’,” building less than 40% of the plane itself. Any response, Boeing?
Wait, Dreamliner flies again! Don’t get excited – it’s just one plane, and just one flight – the aircraft in question was in Texas for a paint job and will now go home to Boeing in Everett, Wash.
Virgin to Nerdville: Silicon Valley’s launch pad – San Jose International – gets Virgin America flights starting in May. No doubt those smart rich techies will appreciate the Branson magic.
This sucks: 700 Frontier jobs to be outsourced, including gate, ticket counter and ramp workers. Our sympathies.
Flight of the Ravens: In case you somehow missed it (and if you did, what the?) Baltimore won. In the dark. Poe would have loved it.
