3 Passengers Held In A Turkish Prison After Filming Flight Attendant Doing Safety Demo

by Gary Leff

Jul 04 2023

Nine Israeli citizens were arrested on arrival in Istanbul after a flight attendant on their Pegasus Airlines flight complained she had been sexually harassed.

The passengers say that the crewmember simply “didn’t like Israelis.” But one member of the group “took a video of her giving the safety instructions before takeoff” and she used that as a pretext for her complaint, though she’d asked the passenger to delete the video and he complied.

Three members of the group have reportedly been held in a Turkish prison on the Syrian border for a week.

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US Government Warns Against Travel To China

by Gary Leff

temple
Jul 04 2023

The U.S. government is warning Americans not to travel to China over laws and practice there allowing for arbitrary detention for political reasons, and for prosecution over the contents of private emails.

New legislation went into effect July 1 allowing the government to take even greater steps. But what about Hong Kong? And transit through the airport there?

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American Airlines Passenger Demands Off A Flight, Thinks Man Seated Near Her Is A Ghost [New Video Copy]

by Gary Leff

Jul 03 2023

Video posted to TikTok shows a woman ranting as she leaves an American Airlines flight prior to departure in Dallas, yelling that she needs off because there’s a passenger on board who “is not real.” And, she says, anyone that stays on board will die alongside that passenger.

A reposting of the original video is garnering millions of views under the hashtag #drunkonaplane although it doesn’t seem that the woman is drunk.

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We Should Allow More People To Come To The U.S. And Stay Here

by Gary Leff

passport getting stamped
Jul 03 2023

The U.S. is losing millions of visitors due to absurd wait times for visas. Last year we saw them get 14 times longer than they were before the pandemic, in some cases nearly three years. Make make it difficult for talented people to come here for work, too, and after a short time we… kick them out.

And we don’t do a great job even figuring out who ‘we’ ‘want’ here in the first place.

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10 Years After Merging, American Airlines And US Airways Gates Have Been Consolidated (Atlanta Was Last)

by Gary Leff

Jul 03 2023

They got onto a single operating certificate. They merged US Airways Dividend Miles into American AAdvantage (while following US Airways plans for a revenue-based program). They combined pilot and flight attendant seniority lists, and transitioned to a single maintenance platform.

But that’s not all of the work that had to happen. Going into 2023, a decade later, it still wasn’t done. American Airlines and US Airways had separate airport operations, and different gates, in 140 locations. Atlanta was the final station to consolidate gates and that’s just happened.

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