Take 10% off your next American Airlines Flight

by Grant Martin on

Summertime fares giving you the blues? Me too. Tickets to Paris are in the 1200$ range and I’m not having any of it. Such is the nature of high season travel though.

At least American Airlines feels our pain (read: is cutting capacity and trying to generate profit) a little bit. They just released a 10% off coupon code for good for all domestic travel booked through the month of May. That means that the outrageously expensive fare that you were thinking about booking to Chicago is now just expensive. Sweet!

Make sure you combine your well priced ticket with the double miles promotion that American is still running. Maybe the thought that you saved a couple bucks and earned double miles will help alleviate the fact that a barrel of oil now costs more than a month’s salary.

Book anytime between now and June 6th for your 10% off using code AAMOBI10. You must travel by June 20.

British Airways: We’re going to take our time moving to Heathrow’s Terminal 5

by Jeffrey White on

Even as the chaos that was the opening of Heathrow’s much vaunted Terminal 5 this spring seems to have subsided some, British Airways says that it will not make the full move to the new wing until after the busy summer travel season.

“Terminal 5 is working well, and this phased move has been planned in the interests of our passengers and the smooth operation of Heathrow over the busy summer period,” British airways said in a statement, reported by the Associated Press.

Now, a handful of long haul BA flights will be moved from Terminal 4 to 5 early next month. But then no other moves are planned until September, when another 30 or so daily flights — including service to Dallas, Chicago and Washington — will make the move. The full move won’t be completed until October.

BA had wanted to make these switches in a matter of days after the new terminal opened in April. But we all saw how well that went. However, come October the carrier will be have about 500 flights a day using the new wing, it says.

He’s baaaack: Determined, 10-year-old runaway nabbed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

by Jeffrey White on

We’ve written about Semaj Booker before. He was the 9-year-old kid last year who managed to talk his way onto two flights and make it all the way from Seattle-Tacoma to Texas. A few days before the incident, Booker had stolen a car and allegedly led police on a high speed pursuit.

Well, Booker, now 10, has just been nabbed again.

The Associated Press is reporting that Booker talked his way past Transportation Security Administration workers at Sea-Tac yesterday before being apprehended at the gate as he tried to board a Southwest Airline flight to Sacramento.

This happened around 6:30 a.m.; Booker had been reported missing by his mother since 3 a.m.

Investigators are questioning how he was able to get through security without presenting a valid boarding pass.

Right now, police have turned the matter over to the local justice department, who is deciding what, if any, new charges need to be brought (he’d been charged in the stolen car incident, but was not sent to juvenile detention).

All I have is man, this kid must really want to leave Tacoma.

Big in Japan: $10,000 worth of marijuana gets misplaced by customs official at Tokyo-Narita airport

by Matthew Firestone on

There are a million reasons to hate flying in the post 9-11 world. From rising fuel surcharges and increased airport delays to overzealous security agents and declining airline quality, spending some time at home isn’t such a bad idea these days. Of course, if you want to encourage consumers to help stimulate the flailing airline industry, why not reward them with copious amounts of sweet and heady ganja?

Are you ready for this one…

According to customs officials at Tokyo-Narita airport, the main international gateway serving Japan, an unwitting passenger arriving accidentally received 142g (approximately 5 ounces) of pure cannabis after a customs test went sour. Believe it or not, a Japanese customs officer hid the huge sack of weed in a side pocket of a randomly chosen suitcase in order to verify the quality of their airport security.

However, the drug-sniffing dogs were unable to find the hidden parcel, and the customs official (who may have been sampling a bit of the contraband) could not remember which bag he put it in! Like all drugs in Japan, marijuana is highly illegal, which means that a quantity of this size is estimated to have a street value of around $10,000 or 1,000,000 yen.

Anyone finding the package has been asked to contact customs officials immediately.

The man behind the botched operation is one Mr. Manpei Tanaka, who serves as the head of customs at Tokyo-Narita airport. In typical Japanese fashion, Mr. Tanaka was extremely humble about the entire affair: “This case was extremely regrettable. I would like to deeply apologize.”

Of course, honorable words aren’t going to make the situation any easier on the absent minded customs official as it is illegal to conduct tests on a passenger’s bag.

According to Mr. Tanaka: “I knew that using passengers’ bags is prohibited, but I did it because I wanted to improve the sniffer dog’s ability. The dogs have always been able to find it before… I became overconfident that it would work.”

So far there have been no reports of anyone uncovering the missing weed stash, though customs officials are confident that it will be returned to the airport within the next twenty-four hours.

While a good number of people in North America tend to have a relaxed attitude towards smoking a bit of reefer from time to time, the Japanese are extremely averse to drugs of any kind. And, while the massive baggy of pot is extremely valuable, it is hard to buy and sell drugs in Tokyo without arousing suspicion.

So, I guess this brings up the simple question: if you were to discover some serious herb while unpacking your suitcase, what would you do with it? Feel free to chime in and share your thoughts with the rest of us!

(Special thanks to Julie Mac for sending this awesome bit of news my way!!)

** All images are courtesy of the WikiCommons Media Project. Also note that Gadling does not condone the smoking of marijuana unless it happens to be really kind bud. **

If you’re in the military you can drive a van onto a runway. At least at Sea-Tac.

by Anna Brones on

Last week in Seattle, retired Army lieutenant colonel Greg Alderete drove a van onto a runway tarmac at Sea-Tac airport. Alderete was supposed to be on the runway — he was picking up a general flying in from Portland — but what shocked him was that no one stopped to ask his name, check his ID, or search his vehicle. And you can’t make the excuse that he was dressed as a military officer; Alderete was in civilian clothes.

“We were sitting there, the engine idling, nobody around, when all of a sudden I realized: We’re out on the goddamn runway,” Alderete said. No inspection, no attention, and no screening made Alderete feel like there was a definite problem with the airport’s security, “with a van full of weapons we could have shut down the entire aviation system.”

Granted the colonel was picking up the general in the corporate jet area, where businessmen and government officials fly in and out of, but still, it makes you wonder just how tight airport security really is.

That was one crazy runway story. Check out these crazy airplane stories!

[Story via Boing Boing; image courtesy frischmilch]