News and notes from around the interweb:
- Etihad says they’re going to keep losing money until 2023.
- A woman complained about receiving unwanted sexually harassing texts via the Virgin Atlantic inflight messaging system. Matthew Klint says this means inflight messaging should be shut down. That’s silly. Obnoxious people drink (far more often) and airlines still serve booze.
Klint acknowledges flight attendants “swiftly dealt with the issue,” texts stopped and crew continued checking on the woman. He says “[n]ever assume adults will act like grown-ups” but the solution isn’t to treat all adults as children it’s to deal with the adults who are causing a problem. This sort of incident is extremely rare, how often have you heard of it?
Yesterday I was on a @VirginAtlantic flight, and I unexpectedly received these sexually harassing messages on my screen (I was in 55C).
The flight attendants were helpful & dealt with it swiftly.Have any other women had this happen to them?#metoo #cyberharassment @SCFGallagher pic.twitter.com/7tbVkRhpQp
— Jessica Van Meir (@jessicavanmeir) October 6, 2019
- Video of two Republic Airways employees getting in a fight in Denver
- 124 year old Indian man flew to Abu Dhabi and yes their systems could handle a date of birth from the 19th century.
Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Al Dallah said that passport employees entered his data without any problems.
He said the Indian centenarian left the UAE after spending his holiday, refuting claims alleging the passport employees found it difficult to register him.
- New Sandra Oh Air Canada commercial (HT: Kate)
- Why so many airlines are going bankrupt. They’re all European airlines and all ceasing business in September or October.
I was referring specifically to this technology, which is outdated and likely too old to update with additional safeguards to prevent these sorts of unwanted exchanges. I also personally hate the idea of some stranger being able to send me messages on a plane, no matter the content.
If this article about the 124 year old Indian man is true, then it’s quite the story because not only is he the oldest currently living person (by at least 6 years):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_living_people
But he’s also the oldest person of all time:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_people
That guy was lucky, I’m a 127 and they wouldn’t let me fly because the system wouldn’t accept my1892 birth year.
@Johnathan – yeah this guy has not had his age verified, I’ve seen some stories about this putting “124 year old man” in quotes.
I agree with Matthew. In seat messaging *may* have been a novel idea a decade ago, but in these days of social media where abusive messages are rife it’s a big risk. It’s out of date and should be switched off. If you want to message a friend you can use WiFi and Twitter/Messenger, etc, or save $20-30 on TATL WiFi charges and walk up the aisle and talk to your friend.
I disagree about removing it, instead make a block seat feature.
Send someone a rude message, they block it and your rude messages just go to /dev/null
Well @Steve S it’s verified enough for his passport. Pictured in the article.
Did someone not just go to the seat, stand over them, ask them why they sending sexual messages to strangers and they ask them how would they feel about meeting with the Washington DC Police upon arrival, so everyone around them would know what is going on? SPEAK UP. STAND UP. You have the proof of what seat sent it.