News and notes from around the interweb:
- American Airlines engaged in mass shutdowns of AAdvantage accounts four years ago over customers who used invitations to apply for Citibank credit cards which didn’t say they were non-transferable, and which circumvented rules limiting how often one could get a bonus. Some people created fake accounts to get these mailers, and did this at scale, while there may have also been far more innocuous uses.
Someone is looking for a Northern California plaintiff for a class action lawsuit over the shutdowns.
- There are weird passenger stories and then there’s
50 minutes since boarding AA5309 PWM-DCA, and the dude next to me can’t stop licking himself. He is bleeding out of 1 or 2 of his fingers, maybe from the cuticles. He wipes blood onto his bloody jeans, licks his fingers, repeats. This is first class on a CRJ900A.
- Aeroflot resumes four-times weekly Abu Dhabi flights using the new midfield concourse. Relatedly, almost all Russian oil is sold above the $60 sanctions price cap.
- “Ghost bagging” is where passengers check bags and then don’t fly with someone else picking up the bag at baggage claim. It’s usually done to transport stolen or otherwise illegal goods. Domestic flights no longer require positive bag matching with passenger accompanying the bag.
- There’s a Whataburger in both the D and E terminals at DFW airport.
Real Life hack
For travelers
Before a @Delta flight
Go to @Whataburger Texas and get a milkshake right before you board. (Or any milkshake at your airport)
Drink just a bit
When you get on board order a couple of @WoodfordReserve pour these both into your milkshake.
Boozy… pic.twitter.com/CufnWi2odZ— Danielle – Diva Q® (@DivaQBBQ) November 14, 2023
- Delta Air Lines 14 month customer service response time.
Omg @Delta finally responded to my email about skymiles from September 2022! 1 year and 2 month response time lol #deltafail pic.twitter.com/SeZGadzmWc
— NS (@Royal_1836) November 14, 2023
- An Air Canada Boeing 777 from Tokyo Haneda touched down hard in Toronto “The wings are rocking from one side to the other resulting in a (possible) wingtip strike before control was regained and the landing was safely completed.” (HT: Hans Mast)
I’ve never been in an airplane that touched down that hard. Is it common to touchdown in such wind conditions instead of going around?
I’m missing something on ghost bagging. Since Pan Am 103, airlines have required a passenger to fly with their bags. Unless the rules have changed that should preclude this happening.
@Christian – where bags are separately screened for domestic flights there’s no longer passenger bag matching
As someone who in recent years once had to travel all over DFW to retrieve our checked bags because they ended up on 3 different flights from MIA and arrived in 3 different terminals, and none of those flights were the one we were on. Had about a 6 hour wait in MIA and apparently the bags caught an early flight whenever they could.