Southwest Airlines to offer free booze to military personnel on Memorial Day

by Aaron Hotfelder on

What’s the best way for an airline to honor those who have fought for America’s freedom? Free booze, of course!

This Memorial Day, Southwest Airlines will be offering all military servicemen and women with valid ID a complimentary alcoholic beverage. Don’t drink? That’s okay. Southwest will also be providing free Monster Energy Drinks to military personnel– perfect for helping you fall asleep on a long flight.

Members of the military will also be allowed to board the plane immediately after the Business Select class (woo-hoo! U-S-A! U-S-A!) and they’ll also be the first ones off the plane.

Nice goin’, Southwest. It’s literally the least you can do.

Travel, alcohol consumption up, according to TripAdvisor

by Tom Johansmeyer on

We’ve seen travel predictions all over, such as Memorial Day travel will be up with the summer down. Everyone’s weighing in. The latest from TripAdvisor is that little has changed in a year. Actually, this isn’t TripAdvisor‘s opinion so much as that of more than 1,800 of its readers in the United States. More than a quarter of those taking vacations plan to make them last from a week to 10 days, with 21 percent upping the ante to 11 days to two weeks. Nearly 20 percent are going for up to three weeks.

Just over half of TripAdvisor’s respondents (56 percent) are taking the same amount of vacation they did last year, while 7 percent will spend more time on recreation than they did last summer.

At least these 1,800 respondents are still interested in having a good time. Thirty-six percent of them are more likely to down a bit more booze on the road … and 28 percent exercise less, with 25 percent eating more junk food. Ice cream is the favorite food (44 percent), and margaritas are the favorite drink (44 percent).

This is only one way that we change our behavior while traveling. Respondents also connect to the internet less (63 percent), watch less television (56 percent) and return fewer calls and e-mails (52 percent).

The top destination this summer is the beach, with 58 percent of respondents ready to get some sand in their toes. Hogging beach chairs will piss them off, though. Thirty-two percent see this behavior while they travel often – nine percent always.

Still have doubts? Not Michele Perry, senior vice president of global communications for TripAdvisor: “Recession be damned, Americans are preparing to pack up the beach bags and boogie boards en masse this summer.”

Drunk flight attendant escorted off plane and arrested

by Jamie Rhein on

When Anthony Shlyshen showed up for work at Gatwick Airport he had had a few–actually several. According to this article, Shlyshen was more than three sheets to the wind when he thought he might be able to manage his easy Jet Airbus shift. Maybe he envisioned the plane’s narrow aisle would keep him from weaving too much, and holding onto the seats from time to time would keep him steady. The pilot thought otherwise and called the police who showed up to escort Shlyshen off the plane.

A breathalyser test showed that his alcohol level was 182 mcg, eight times over the legal alcohol limit for work. It was twice the level for driving. Given his age, 48, I’m wondering why he just didn’t call in sick. By 48, one would probably recognize what being schnockered looks like to other people, particularly those who are trained to notice.

Now Shlyshen could be facing jail time. A fine is guaranteed. Calling in sick would have definitely been the cheaper option.

More stories of booze gone bad in the skies

Another passenger pulled off plane after booze fueled fight

by Scott Carmichael on

And here we go again – once again, a passenger decided that being cut off from drinking more booze was not such a good idea, and decided to start a fight.

Russel Krebs, a 6’3″ 200 pound passenger was on his way to Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International airport on a Comair flight when the crew decided that he’d had enough to drink. At that point the real trouble started.

An off-duty pilot and one of the flight attendants were able to get him in plastic cuffs until the plane landed. Normally a situation like this would mean the cops wait until the plane is at the gate, but in this case, they actually met the plane on the runway to remove Krebs.

I’m not sure how stupid one has to be to start a fight in an aircraft cabin, especially with the knowledge that you may be on the same flight as a federal air marshal.

Krebs is currently locked away, and the FBI is investigating whether to press federal chargers. In that case, a few drinks and a couple of punches could mean he’ll be locked away for a pretty long time. Of course, things don’t get easier for him since the police discovered “a controlled substance” which will only add to the charges.

(Via: WCPO Cincinnati)

Check out these stories from the airport checkpoint!


Passengers revolt and refuse to fly without a new pilot

by Jamie Rhein on

Last month, two passengers heading through airport security thought a pilot was drunk and called the authorities. Last May, a pilot was found drunk and naked in the woods. In this latest what-is-wrong-with-the-pilot episode, more than 100 passengers on a Boeing 767 jet bound for New York from Moscow signed a paper saying they thought the pilot was three sheets to the wind.

This happened after the pilot sounded inebriated when he slurred the preflight announcements. According to this article in The Moscow Times, when he switched to English, the passengers had enough and refused to allow Aeroflot Flight 315 to take off.

It didn’t matter one bit that the flight attendants told the passengers to “stop making trouble,” and if the passengers didn’t like it, they could get off the plane. The passengers called for reinforcement from Aeroflot’s home office, but the talking heads wouldn’t pay any attention to the passengers either–at least not until a Russian TV personality and socialite, who happened to be on the plane, stepped in.

Finally, the pilot, along with the other three pilots on board, were switched out so new pilots could get the passengers air bound.

As absurd as this story sounds, consider this. An Aeroflot representative later said that it wasn’t that big a deal if a pilot is drunk because the plane flies itself with a press of a button. Kent?