Category Archives for Passengers.
Every basic warning exists because someone has done it before, like Mitt Romney ironing his clothes while wearing them. But an inflight foot massage in economy? This may be the worst thing I’ve ever seen on a plane. This is a whole new entry into “what’s grosser than gross?”
David Harris, Jr., whose book title describes himself as a black conservative, posted a livestream refusing to wear a mask on American Airlines. With a wink and a nod he suggested that a medical issue with a mask was enough to exempt anyone from the requirement. It was clear he didn’t have a ‘real’ medical need. Indeed he had a photo of himself on Instagram wearing a mask.
He’s posted a new video to twitter showing the airline turning him away for his past mask altercation, and he’s shocked that no one from the airline told him he was banned.
Sunday evening’s United Airlines flight UA2304 from Los Angeles to Newark saw a significant police response on the tarmac, with luggage inspected and passengers eventually bused to the terminal, after a customer with a medical emergency apparently said there was a bomb on board while hallucinating.
If everyone was going to treat the hallucination as real, why couldn’t the passenger have had a vision of good service – or better yet that 2020 was over?
Two women were flying between Greece and Armenia – double connecting in Munich and Kiev. On their first stop in Munich their luggage was searched.
People get kicked off of planes for lots of reasons. Often alcohol is involved. Recently the refusal to wear a mask has been a point of conflict, but with months feeling like years now this reason seems ‘so July’.
Instead the most 2020 reason to get kicked off a plane is now wearing a mask that’s offensive.
Two men, who allegedly had been binging on vodka, refused to wear masks. They were reminded of the requirement by cabin crew. They also refused to be seated for landing. One reportedly hit a fellow passenger. Then passengers and flight attendants worked together to restrain one of the men.
Covidiots aren’t the exclusive realm of the United States. The outbreak in the U.S. is huge (though not worst in the world by confirmed cases or deaths, adjusted for population). But the U.S. is hardly alone when it comes to idiots – or dissent over the best policy response to the virus.
On Delta’s Cancun – New York JFK flight DL787 on Friday, the man sitting in 31D kept asking for help from a flight attendant. Delta has been blocking middle seats, but the man seated nearest him in 31F kept removing his face mask. Four or five times cabin crew would ask him to put it on, and he’d reportedly do so only until the crewmember had left.
David Harris, Jr. is apparently popular in certain circles as a black man who supports President Trump, though I hadn’t heard of him until he made a ruckus on an American Airlines flight – refusing to wear a mask, and advising his followers that only N95 masks are prophylactic, which isn’t supported by the balance of evidence at this point.
Apparently Mr. Harris held up a flight departure on Saturday when he boarded without a mask on, and passengers complained. He reports that he “declared [to] have a medical reason to not wear a mask.”
Even with fewer people traveling than ever before during the pandemic, conflict in a metal tube over surprisingly controversial subjects seems almost de rigueur.
So what’s actually shocking in this view isn’t a woman being kicked off for refsuing to wear a mask, it’s all the carry on bags as she leaves the aircraft!
On Monday two passengers got into a fight on their plane departing the San Juan airport. The pilot decided to turn back around but things really escalated once everyone was back inside the terminal.
With fewer people traveling, and a sense that ‘we’re all in this together’ during a global pandemic, is it naive to have thought we’d see fewer inflight altercations?
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
