News and notes from around the interweb:
- ‘Gate lice’ beware: American Airlines is catching early boarders (WaPo)
American Airlines has been piloting a system in recent weeks to flag when people attempt to board before their group has been called. Experts in human behavior say travelers who mass at the gate ahead of their turn do so out of a tendency to conform — and out of a sense of competition. Airline employees often refer to those passengers as “gate lice.”
- When United Airlines announced that it would fly to Nuuk, Greenland I didn’t realize that it didn’t yet have an airport capable of handling their two 737s per week.
The new terminal opens around Thanksgiving and the new runway has been waiting for it for a while. Previously the airport could only handle small prop flights serving the city’s 18,000 residents and was built in 1979.
Three airports are being rebuilt at a cost of $800 million. Denmark outbid China to finance the project.
- Having tried it on multiple carriers, Starlink really is legions better than any other inflight wifi.
Elon Musk FaceTiming over Starlink to the first Boeing 777 equipped with Starlink on a Qatar Airways flight! pic.twitter.com/cjyDYISB93
— Owen Sparks (@OwenSparks_) October 22, 2024
- Bellagio (finally) reopening Buffet for dinner (HT: R.M.)
- Apropos of nothing, Delta 4141 is regional jet service from Seattle to Redmond. FlightAware thinks it was last a Boeing 727 flight in 1998. “Wasn’t that a Twilight Zone episode?”
So you’re saying I missed my flight?
byu/Silly_Leg8629 indelta - Passenger grabbed flight attendant’s breasts then tried to kick cockpit door down on Newark-Zurich flight
- On Sunday night’s United 2206, the 10 p.m. Houston – Denver flight, a passenger “reek[ing] of vomit and…clearly intoxicated” declared herself the drunkest ever, and drooled on her seatmate – and thought she wa flying to Managua (though was uncertain she was on an airplane).
Another form of ‘gate lice’ are Dem office-holders lining up for “job-related” travel to Europe .
The story on Bellagio reopening the buffet for dinner is dated May 2023. Huh Gary?
He’s got Vegas on his mind. Zorkfest event there on the same weekend as the FT Mod Do in LA. Brisket, baby. Boo.
I suspect that the Zurich bound grabber and puncher will not show up for court.
In fairness to Gary, he derived his title from WaPo, who titled their article: ‘Gate lice’ beware: American Airlines is catching early boarders. Somebody should have told him, WaPo is right up there with the New York Times when it comes to fake news. Although I applaud American’s new plan to stop early-boarders, it will do nothing to stop ‘Gate Lice’. As soon as they announce boarding, the entire hoard of borders (aka ‘Gate Lice’) shuffles ever closer to the boarding entrance. Yes, the new plan will stop them from boarding early, but it’s a virtual certainty that the hoard will still be there nonetheless.
Gate lice is usually lowly OPM flyers who think they are important because an airline gives them a shiny elite card and bag tags.
Nuuk will be interesting considering there is very little to do there, the good stuff in Greenland is all an expensive flight away. Hopefully American tourists just keep to Nuuk and don’t overrun the rest of the island.
I tend to doubt it will stop the practice. What’s really bad are the people in Group One that immediately rush the boarding lane when preboards are boarding. They in my experience are worst than those in Group 9 that think the term “Concierge Key” somehow must apply to that Group 9 printed on their boarding pass.
And it won’t stop the 50-100 people crowded the entrance of the boarding lane, most of them not boarding with Groups one or two.
Don’t get me started on the pre board fakers.