Beware the nose-picker: 10 not-so-common air travel complaints

by Jeffrey White on

The flight attendant whose skirt is too short. The seat mate who picks his nose…and eats the result. The passenger vexed by an odd vibe on the plane, and who insists the flight is haunted.

Chances are these types of things do not top the list of complaints that frequent fliers among us might lob at their airline of choice. We typically are miffed about late departures and delays, Draconian security measures at the airport, lost baggage, that sort of thing. Maybe there are a few of us who feel slighted for having to shell out for booze on international routes on American carriers.

Well, veteran fight attendant and MSNBC.com travel columnist James Wysong has a few not-so-common consumer complaints he’s heard during a 20-year career in the skies. “10 Wacky Complaints About Air Travel” has a few objections that we’ve all probably had over the years (like how to deal with a gassy passenger) and perhaps a few we haven’t (would anybody really care if their favorite airline switched from Pepsi to Coke?).

My favorite: The man with questionable English skills surprised at the water-landing portion of the inflight safety procedural. Alarmed that no one had informed him that this particular flight was landing on water, he confided to Wysong that he could not swim.

Photo of the Day (04.15.2008)

by Martha Edwards on


I picked this photo by Kouiskas as the photo of the day because it looks almost too good be real, you know? Everything is perfect, from the colours of the earth to the fluffiness of the clouds. Postcard-perfect photos are usually fairly elusive, down to nothing more than the stroke of luck that you happened to visit a site on the ideal day. And it’s why we bring our cameras everywhere — we’re afraid of missing that perfect photo opportunity.

Got any perfect photos to share? Share them with us — join the Gadling Flickr Pool.

Rest in peace, Lonely Planet scandal: A final note from Thomas Kohnstamm

by Aaron Hotfelder on

[Over the past few days, I’ve been in contact with former Lonely Planet author Thomas Kohnstamm via e-mail discussing the recent controversy surrounding him. Since he believes he’s been unfairly criticized, I offered him the opportunity to share his side of the story on Gadling, as he’s already done on World Hum. Here’s what he wrote.]

“When I was discussing some of the difficulties faced by guidebook writers, I explained that it was often difficult to visit every establishment and remote town in person. The journalist asked me if sometimes people never visited the countries at all. I said that there is such a thing as a “desk update,” which is somewhat common in the whole travel publishing industry (although very infrequent at LP).

He asked if I had ever done something like that and I explained that I had written about Colombia even though I had not gone there for the project. He asked why and I explained that there was not enough money for it (my advance was less than the cost of a flight down). Therefore I did a desk update, which was sanctioned by Lonely Planet. They made the decision that I was to write about it from home, not me.

I did normal research and got additional details from the Colombian girl I was dating at the time. Any professional travel writer out there knows that desk updates happen and are sanctioned by the publisher. It is a budgetary reality.”

[Hi, Aaron again. I’d like to, if it’s okay with everyone else, pronounce this “scandal-but-not-really-but-maybe-it-is” officially dead and buried. Rest in peace.]

From the New Europe: Mr Gay Europe final returns to Hungary

by Iva Skoch on

Before the fall of communism, back 19 years ago (jeez, has it really been that long?) there were no gay people in Eastern Europe. No really. None. At least according to the Soviet propaganda.

Look at good old Eastern Europe now. Prague is the new capital of gay pornography and Budapest proudly announces that Mr Gay Hungary competition has has joined forces with Budapest Pride to organize the finals of the Mr Gay Europe contest in July 2-6, Budapest Sun reports.

According to a statement put out by the organizers, “Mr Gay Europe celebrates the gay European man and pays tribute to the diversity, as well as what gay men have in common in Europe.” This year, any gay man throughout Europe can register to take part in the Mr Gay Europe competition. Last year, 23 delegates competed for the title, with Jackson Netto (see photo), from Germany, winning. This year’s theme is “Unity and Solidarity.”

That’s the New Europe for ya.

Merger mania: Bloomberg takes a look at the numbers

by Grant Martin on

Wondering how and why these mergers all make sense? Bloomberg put together a pretty nifty set of charts showing where each of the United, Northwest, Continental and United hubs are, their traffic and CEO, financial, US Ranking, Aviary, Employee, Alliance and Frequent Flier data.

It’s an interesting look at the facts behind each of the four carriers — a place to look at how each airline influences the United States and a place to formulate your own opinion on the pending mergers. They even go so far as to supply the sources (gasp) of their data.

If these mergers start to come through, it’s going to be a very busy summer here at Gadling. Keep an eye out for our expert and/or wildly speculative articles about the next big thing and who’s going to be losing their frequent flyer miles next.