Turkish Airlines began serving Dallas during the pandemic. The flight worked so well for them, that they’ve grown it. And they’ll be operating 10 flights a week starting in June.
American Airlines, which once said they’d never let someone encroach on their turf like that, now favors short haul domestic flights and has a dearth of widebodies. They’re flat-footed.
Former CEO Doug Parker explained the old philosophy,
Somebody starts flying a flight from Dallas to anywhere and American either is already there or we’re gonna be there. Because we’re not going to let customers have another option other than American in and out of here.
Maybe it’s better they don’t fly to Istanbul, because that flight seems to be attracting an undesirable element? At least one Turkish passenger found himself arrested in Dallas for shoplifting a wallet from the Coach store in the D terminal.
- He actually bought something, but when the clerk wasn’t looking he took a second item
- And he asked for two boxes even though he was only buying one thing
- Everything is on camera. The wallet had gone missing. Clerks saw it was taken and called the police.
Officers tracked down the passenger at the Turkish Airlines gate. He claimed to have been given the wallet (‘buy one thing, get the wallet free’) and he’d never steal anything because he comes from a “good family.”
Who are you going to believe, the man from a good family or the videotape showing him stealing the wallet and surreptitiously placing it in his backpack and the clerks reporting the wallet stolen?
The clerk had a choice: would they let the man pay for the wallet, or did they insist on pressing charges? Lock him up.
In San Francisco, shoplifting up to $950 was reclassified from a felony to a misdemeanor. But along with that Prop 47 meant that police officers could no longer perform arrests for shoplifting and instead in most cases just issue a citation. You get a $1,000 fine for stealing $950. Shoplifting in San Francisco was, effectively, legalized by the The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act which is why you got so much of it. Dallas – Fort Worth airport, of course, is in Texas and the passenger was taken into custody.
(HT: Live and Let’s Fly)
Actually… in Texas, the felony threshold for theft is $2500 – much higher than California.
It wasn’t just the reduction to a misdemeanor, it’s that along with it police do not arrest. Here, police arrest – except in Austin where they do not respond to calls.
I’m quite surprised Doug Parker’s comment, “Because we’re not going to let customers have another option other than American in and out of here.” wasn’t considered an antitrust violation… seems pretty blatant.
Correct, @Samus ! The difference of course, is that Texas tends to prosecute Theft of all types, whereas California tends to prosecute nothing.
@Wario – It was rather striking at the time when I first reported it
All young people ought to learn the Ten Commandments , and the society would be better .
Judging by his accent, the passenger seems to be a native of India. I wonder if this passenger was connecting at DFW and had been living or studying in California. He got used to the California culture of ignoring petty theft and figured that all of America treated shoplifting the same way.
He has definitely shoplifted prior to this. He either never got caught or kept getting the California or Austin slap on the wrist.
#@TexasTJ, in California, just carrying a gun is a serious crime if you have never been in trouble with the law, whereas in Texas it is not. Criminals and miscreants have more rights than the typical person.
Uh… if something is “free gift with purchase”, they still ring up that item. And it changes to $0.00 on the receipt.
I still can’t dismiss his claim that this was offered to him as a Buy1Get2 type deal. Detailed scrutiny of the CCTV audio should clarify that.
If something is BOGO, do you wait until the sales associate leaves and, in with the skills of the Artful Dodger, concealing it from the general visibility of the rest of the store, staff, and cameras, slip one away into your bag?
Just beating him down a few times and send him back to India. Now our taxes have to pay to keep this guy in a tarrant county jail
Prop 47 is a disaster. Unmitigated disaster brought on by well intentioned but short sided voters. They should repeal the state referendum process.
You remind me of a story I read when I was traveling to Singapore a couple weeks ago:
A woman shoplifted something in Changi airport, wasn’t caught and left the country. The police identified her but couldn’t arrest her in time. Two months later, the woman returned to Singapore and was arrested when she returned to Singapore. The police actually found her stole something else on the day she was arrested.
I’m not sure I follow the reasoning that AA shouldn’t start a flight to IST since people from the region are more likely to steal. Seems like an odd generalization.