Bare butt (flight) bargains in Britain

by Tom Johansmeyer on

You’ll do anything for a free flight, right? You’ll stand at the counter and yell and scream at some gate agent for half an hour while a line that stretches back to the next terminal wait with looks of increasing contempt. You’ll get up in the middle of the night to enter every online contest you can find first. But, would you strip to your skin – in the company of 998 other non-professional strippers?

That’s right. An airline – which isn’t revealing itself yet – is offering free flights from London to eight destinations for the 999 people willing to show it all (except the “rude bits,” according to the website). On March 15, all those who register will be invited to come to a central location in London and shed their threads.

There is no trace of the airline responsible. A WHOIS look up and a hunt through the website’s source code only turned up Hotcow, a marketing company that specializes in coordinating these types of stunt. So, you now have two choices: (1) read the news on March 15 or (2) register to be one of the 999!

[Via Jaunted]

The sky is falling!: Nope, it’s just plane parts

by Jamie Rhein on

Imagine this. You’re going about your busy day without much thought about what’s going on above your head and then Bam! There’s a bit of an explosion and pieces of metal start falling, some the size of a BlackBerry–others bigger. Not as big as a house, but bigger than a BlackBerry.

“Was Chicken Little right?” you might ask yourself and whoever else is close by, providing those people weren’t beaned by the falling objects.

This scenario is similar to what happened yesterday when an American Airlines flight out of LaGuardia heading for Chicago had an engine explode. Luckily, the plane was designed to fly on just one engine so the plane headed to JFK and landed safely.

Also, luckily, the engine parts fell over an industrial area. Instead of landing on Jimmy and Susy playing on their backyard swing set (although it is still cold out so perhaps they wouldn’t have been out in the backyard), the parts landed on top of a warehouse and scattered across a parking lot, cracking windshields and one of the building’s skylights.

Can’t you just hear the “My words!?” and “What the heck?!” of the people working inside the building? Particularly when they went outside and saw the small pieces of titanium like metal scattered every which way.

There is an investigation to find out what caused the explosion. The McDonnell Douglas-80 plane had 88 passengers on board who now have an interesting story to tell about the time they helped make the sky fall.

The airline’s take is that these things happen. True, but a bit unnerving. I’ve been on three planes that have been diverted because of engine trouble. I wonder if anyone had to duck and cover down below? [via wcbstv.com]

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Lousiana Senator David Vitter throws fit at the airport

by Annie Scott on

Louisiana Sen David Vitter missed his plane at Dulles Airport last Wednesday, and he was not amused.

Vitter, who recently gained infamy after being identified on the D.C. Madam’s Phone List, found his gate closed, so he went through an armed security door. Why not? He’s got that Senator’s pin, after all, right? That gives you access to all areas of the airport … right?

As you might expect, an alarm went off as he then tried to verbally rip an unsuspecting United Airlines gate attendant a new one. Apparently, he even tried to pull rank. Come on. Would that even work in his home state?

When the employee exited to find a security guard, Vitter ran away. What a maverick. According to The Raw Story, “Vitter’s spokeperson did not dispute the incident.”

Check out these other stories from the airport checkpoint!

Student sues US Airways for $1 Million – for a lost gaming console

by Scott Carmichael on

Our gaming buddies over at Joystiq.com are reporting on yet another incident at US Airways. This morning it involved a casket, this afternoon it involves a missing Xbox 360 gaming console.

Normally, when something goes missing in your luggage, you file a claim, and you’ll never hear anything back. But in the case of 21 year old Jesse Maiman, he’s not going to just sit back and relax – he’s suing US Airways for a cool $1 Million.

The console went missing last December on a flight from New Haven to Kentucky. When he picked up his luggage, he noticed how light it was. It was then that he realized his Xbox had been swiped.

According to Maiman, the Xbox had a specialized hard drive and components, and cost over $1000.

In his suit, he’s seeking $1,700 for the loss of his console, and “of at least $25,000, but in the maximum amount allowable by law or, in the alternative, in the sum of $1,000,000.”

That is right – one million Dollars for a lost Xbox.

US Airways was not aware of the lawsuit just yet, but was quick to point out that the law sets a limit on how much an airline will pay for lost luggage, currently that limit is just $3,300 per bag. But get this – the payouts always exclude any liability for electronics.

What I don’t understand is how someone can be stupid enough to put an Xbox console in their bag, but smart enough to get a lawsuit going. Even the most inexperienced flier knows that expensive items don’t go in your checked bag. It is hard to blame someone for the dishonesty of airport workers, but there are just too many cases of theft to expect expensive electronics to make it to your destination.

My guess is that there will be 2 possible outcomes here – US Airways will pay him a nominal fee to make the case go away, or they’ll play along and have him pay their legal fees when he loses. Either way, I don’t think he’ll be seeing his first million any time soon.

UK Airports to face penalties when they screw up your trip

by Scott Carmichael on

The UK has a bit of a history when it comes to airports getting in the way of your vacation plans.

London Heathrow airport is where I’ve spent many a night waiting for air traffic to get back to normal while they attempt to fix whatever was interfering with my plans.

Last year was undoubtedly the worst period in the history of UK airport screw ups – the opening of Heathrow Terminal 5 was nothing short of a monumental disaster.

At one point, the airport operator was telling passengers to just stay home until the problems were fixed. And even when things got slightly better, the airport was losing 1000 bags a day.

Another great example of an airport messing things up occurred when Gatwick saw a little snow, and decided to shut down for the morning, stranding thousands of passengers, and forcing planes to divert to neighboring airports.

A new government proposal could help improve things – it plans to give the UK Civil Aviation Authority more power to issue penalties to BAA, who operate most of the airports. The penalties will be in the form of rebates for the airlines who were impacted. Of course, this may not always benefit passengers, as the proposal does not force airlines to split their penalty proceeds with passengers.

Still, it is a step in the right direction, and if the penalties are stiff enough, it might help the offending airports realize they can’t always get away with being incompetent.