Episode 146 July Crazy Travel Roundup
Recorded in the beautiful home office of Chateau’ Relaxo.
This month’s first question, what do you do when the airlines don’t offer food service? Or food service beyond canned drinks and bagged pretzels.
Then do as Queenoftheratchet - and bring not one, but two aluminum trays full of shrimp, crab legs, and mudbugs, aka… crawfish. Picture this, two passengers, one in the aisle seat the other in the window with two party-sized trays stuffed full of food straight from the water.
One tray resting on one of the seatback trays, the other tray is safely resting on the middle seat. God bless the next one seated there… think grease stains and possibly crustacean shell remnants. The middle seatback tray was set up as a makeshift bar complete with mini bottles of wine.
Over the years I’ve seen a variety of foods brought on and then consumed on planes. If you happen to be on a flight departing from Memphis, be prepared as there are no less than 6 BBQ joints, all providing TSA-compliant doggie bags within 5 miles of the Memphis airport.
Looking to get my attention, especially when it comes to airline travel, just mention that the emergency slide was deployed.
After flight delayed, then canceled, passenger uses emergency exit of plane on tarmac at Charlotte airport WCNCdid.
An unnamed passenger on a flight out of Charlotte Douglas International Airport was arrested after opening the exit door of a plane while it was on the tarmac. He then climbs out onto the wing and jumps down onto the tarmac.
The flight was heading from Charlotte to Baltimore but had been delayed two hours, then eventually canceled. The plane then sat on the tarmac for another 45 minutes while waiting for a gate agent, according to Goldner.
The passenger seemed to be frustrated and tired of waiting, then climbed over other passengers to get to the emergency exit.
American Airlines has provided the following statement to WCNC Charlotte:
"After boarding was complete, American Airlines flight 2396, was canceled due to severe weather. While waiting for the jet bridge to be repositioned, a passenger opened the over-wing emergency exit and jumped onto the ramp. The customer was immediately detained by American team members blah, blah, finishing up with, we thank our team members for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience."
What American Airlines failed to report, in my humble opinion, was the fact that almost every other passenger on that flight secretly applauded the second that slide hit the tarmac.
For the fourth month in a row, it’s the MIA Fight Club, and this time the fight happened as the passengers were deplaning.
I ask, what was the cause of the fight?
Did someone step on someone’s foot? Nope.
Did someone touch someone inappropriately? Nope.
Then what? Well get this the fight, the fourth entry into the MIA fight club was over - A passenger took too long to retrieve their bags from the overhead bin.
This story was all over the travelsphere and a common theme between all of them is that a racial slur was said? Hurled? And then the fight started. And as normal, there is video evidence of the exchange.
The 2:58 mark of TikTok video that was provided by hip hop artist Milli Miami, no relation to Milli Vanilli, and Milli summed it up with his comment - You can see the white man on top of the Black passenger just beating him between the seats. The flight attendant got involved. The white man’s wife got involved. His son, I believe, and his son’s girlfriend — everyone was just involved.
Here’s my take, not sure of the time threshold for removing one’s bag from the overhead bin, but if you drop a racial slur, the time threshold is probably not that relevant.
One last question - Guess the airlines?
Spirit? An easy go-to, but nope
American (the new Spirit) airlines? Nope
It was Frontier…. Thanks for playing.
One of the handiest things I have around the house is duct tape, make all the jokes you want but duct tape is the powerful equalizer. Case and point. Woman gets duct-taped to seat after trying to open door in-flight
The woman reportedly had a ‘mental breakdown’ while the plane was in the air and tried to open the door at the front of the plane mid-flight. In all my years of travel, I don’t recall anyone being able to pull this off, I think it has something to do with pressure or physics,
Next, apparently, she then began attacking crew members. Trying to scratch and bite them while screaming that she needed to ‘get off this plane’. Side note we all need to get off any plane that we’re on.
American Airlines confirmed that flight attendants had ‘restrained’ the passenger until the flight safely reached its destination. Sounds harmless, but a video posted by another passenger on TikTok showed that rather than using typical restraints, the crews instead taped her to her seat, even covering her mouth with duct tape to stop her from screaming.
In a statement, American Airlines said that the passenger had been restrained ‘for the safety and security of other customers and our crew’. No mention of the duct tape.
In life, your actions have consequences. If you tirelessly work on “keeping it tight” eating the right food, exercise, etc you stand a pretty good chance of attracting the partner that you want. Possibly out-kicking your coverage. Not familiar with that phrase visit Urban Dictionary.
If you slam ice cream and candy bars down your pie hole, you stand a pretty good chance of attracting diabetes…….. As I said, actions have consequences.
And in the case of this American Airlines passenger, the consequences were well deserved.
This incident started when a passenger wasn’t wearing a mask. This is now happening every month, more on that later.
At check-in, after being asked to wear her mask, the woman apparently called the employee a “b*tch”. Now typically in situations like this, the customer would ask to speak with the manager Not in this case, the manager got involved all on their own. He was brought into the loop of what she said, and then he said:
“It was completely uncalled for and inappropriate, you’re not going to travel. We don’t tolerate that crap with us, at all. You can find another carrier to fly. I’d suggest Spirit.”
Of course, the passenger claimed that she didn’t call anyone a “b*tch,” but other passengers heard it, and let the manager know….. Thank you for the helpers.
If you are a baby manager, retail, fast-food or HR take these three things away from the exchange.
The manager remained calm and was professional
He didn’t engage with the upset passenger any longer than necessary.
Even though the manager delivered a message that the passenger didn’t want to hear he also offered a solution…… Fly Spirit.
This next one comes to us from ImADullard.com.
Let me set the stage. Most of us know what a snowbird is, it’s elderly people who travel to Florida during the winter months. They arrive after Thanksgiving, go home for Christmas and come back the day after New Year and stay until early April.
Here in Florida, we have the term Sunbird. That’s a person who lives and works in Florida, then seeks cooler summer areas in the North, especially after retirement.
Enter Wegel Rosen, 74, who was at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport when approached the Air Canada counter to check-in for his flight to Toronto. You see, Rosen is a sunbird.
Rosen was informed of the fee for his carry-on bag, Rosen then began an argument with the gate agent. Things for Rosen began to go sideways when he tried to pay for his bag fee in cash was told that Air Canada was a cashless carrier. However, Rosen was advised to visit another terminal and purchase a visa gift card which he could use to pay for his bag. Rosen then stated there was a bomb in his bag and left, leaving the bag at the counter. I’m sure you can piece together the rest of the story, but it goes something like this.
Terminals 2, 3 & 5 at FLL were evacuated
Broward County Deputies showed up.
The Broward County Bomb Squad showed up. The agents examined his bag and found his CPAP machine.
As a reward, Rosen spent the weekend in jail and had his bail at $20,000. Rosen is allowed to return to Canada, but he can’t do it by flying out of FLL. Think Miami, hey the fight club, or the sleeper airport in Florida, West Palm Beach.
Now I’m not a lawyer but I suggest Rosen plead not guilty by reason of insanity. Only an insane person would say he has a bomb in his bag when he doesn’t.
Over the course of my 56 trips around the sun I’ve been exposed to several gates, some you might recall -
1972 - Watergate
1980 - Billygate
2004 - Nipplegate (Superbowl)
2018 - Ubergate
In 2021 we have Diapergate.
A female doctor on a four flight with her toddler found herself where no one would ever want to be, changing a baby’s diaper in an airplane lavatory. She placed the soiled diaper in the trash as one would be expected to do, returned to her seat where she was apparently berated by a flight attendant for placing a poopy diaper in the lavatory trash, claiming it was Biohazard. The good doctor returned to the lavatory and on her way there asked another flight attendant fo a garbage bag to place the diaper in. That flight attendant told her that throwing the diaper away in the lavatory is what one is supposed to do, so when the good doctor confronted the initial flight attendant about it, he yelled at her and said he didn’t want to deal with her.
So all that is, pardon the pun, pretty crabby, but wait there’s more, there’s always more.
Later that evening the initial flight attendant called the good doctor from a United Airlines 1-800 number, (Coward) and told her, she’s been placed on the no-fly list because of a biohazard incident. And then cursed her out, and said “YOU people bring your families everywhere. You should stop flying and just drive. I can hear your obnoxious baby in the background right now..”
I’m known to often say, you can’t make this stuff up, and this qualifies. First I doubt a flight attendant posses to power to place anyone on a no-fly list so quickly, especially over a diaper clean or dirty…. There’s got to be some forms or something that has to be approved. Then to track down the good doctor’s phone number, there’s got to be a privacy violation in there somewhere. Hopefully, the flight attendant is busy updating his resume.
Following up on last month’s crazy travel roundup and the story of the LAX to ATL flight that was diverted due to one passenger, who later turned out to be a Delta flight attendant, because they created havoc mid-flight. The man who created all the havoc was wearing a helmet for most of the flight. Odd, but it’s not illegal to wear a helmet on a plane, but it is odd.
So this begs to ask what weird stuff can you actually take on a plane with you? And he is just a sample...
Body armor
Car parts (as long as they do not have any traces of fuel)
Artificial bones
Shock collars
Your Harry Potter wand or lightsaber
Drumsticks
Electric blankets
Geiger counter
Live fish
This is from the “It can’t possibly get any worse” department. Dateline Hawaii.
A vacation on Maui turned into a rental car nightmare for the Agors from Pearl City, Hawaii
Joe Agor said his mom spent more than $1,100 to rent a car for two days. That’s $550.00 per day, and we’ve talked about the rental car situation in Hawaii. Outrageous prices and tourists renting U-Haul trucks while visiting.
This is where it gets worse, the day after they arrived, someone hit their parked rental car then fled.
They called the police and when they arrived they began taking the required information and when they saw the plates, they said,’ Oh you got expired plates.’ Agor replied, ‘Oh.’ Then the officer said, ‘Sorry brah, I gotta write you a ticket,’”.
The ticket was for expired registration and no insurance. The registration had expired in May 2020. This took place in July 2021
Ace Rent A Car initially filed a claim for the accident. However, a manager later called the Agor family to apologize and promised to cancel the claim and take care of the ticket.
This article does bring to light a solid travel tip, check your rental for expired tags. Honestly, I’ve never done it.
I’ve had two rental car mishaps, 2011/2012 a $400.00 speeding ticket in a Georgia construction zone as I was trying to outrun a February snowstorm. The other was 2001 as I was driving through the Florida Mall parking lot my rental was hit by someone cutting across the parking lot. We exchanged information and I was really feeling bad about this. Would Hertz cancel my Gold membership? Would my employer be upset? As I was rolling into the rental lot to drop my car I looked out the passenger window to see another rental with the hood folded back, the front end crushed, and at least one flat tire….. Suddenly I didn’t feel so bad.
Following up on keeping it tight - Bodybuilder accuses American Airlines of banning her from flight over attire - Thank you New York Post.
away from her conservative country was reportedly banned from boarding her American Airlines flight in Texas because her attire was deemed offensive.
Deniz Saypinar, 26, a Turkish bodybuilder and fitness model who moved to the US to flex her muscles as well as her social media muscles.
During July, Deniz got stuck at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Thursday after American Airlines flight attendants took issue with her outfit.
Deniz told her 1 million followers on Instagram, that the crew members called her “naked.”
She went on to claim the flight attendants said her fashion “disturbed other families” at the airport.
Deniz, the first non-American citizen to win the US National Bikini Fitness Competition in 2021, told her followers, “I am not naked,”.
The July crazy travel roundup has been a very legal-driven episode, so for this, I will defer to the 1964 pornography case of Jacobellis v. Ohio. This is the case where the phrase, "I know it when I see it." came into play. And for my take, I will apply just that, "I know it when I see it." While Deniz’s clothing-to-skin ratio has skin as the dominant player she isn’t naked, and this isn’t pornographic. Many of these wardrobe malfunctions are brought to our attention due to the fact that so many of us are uncomfortable in our own skin as well as clothing.
Just to prove that you can sue for almost anything I give you - Injuries from plane’s aborted landing ruin NC family’s ‘last big vacation.
According to the Charlotte Observer - A North Carolina family had planned a “once-in-a-lifetime” vacation to Las Vegas, Hawaii, and Los Angeles in what they expected to be their “last big vacation” together. When I see “last big vacation” I’m thinking don’t buy green bananas in case no one is around when they ripen up. Let’s continue.
Things went awry when their American Airlines flight attempted to land in Las Vegas. The family is now suing American Airlines for more than $100,000. It seems that the turbulent landing caused the family to seek medical help as well as canceling much of their trip.
This is a case of following the money or follow the aborted landing. This family of four wants 100K, 25K per person for an aborted landing. First, had the pilot not decided to abort things could’ve been worse. Second, 25k for an aborted landing, back the Brinks truck up, because I would be close to retiring at the age of 56.
One of the things that I’ve always prided myself on is my ability to relate to most situations, however, I can’t relate to this next story at all - United Airlines Passenger Carrying Large Wad of Cash Causes Emergency Landing.
I can relate to flying United, it’s the carrying a “large wad of cash” part that I have a hard time with. To me, two twenties is a large wad of cash.
An LAX flight to Denver was diverted after a passenger was seen carrying what appeared to be a large wad of cash, and this caused a disturbance on board.
The man causing the disturbance started arguing with another female passenger. , The female was not his traveling partner
Pictures from inside the plane show a man carrying what appears to be a large bundle of cash in his hand. It is unclear why the man was carrying such a large number of bills, or if it had anything to do with the disturbance.
The incident, believed to be minor, meant the flight had to be diverted to Denver Airport, where the man reportedly exited the plane peacefully.
"This man and another passenger had something transpire that was inappropriate," she added. "They were not traveling together. The operator kept very low-key. Most passengers didn't know anything was going on."
Starting in September 2020 aka mid pandemic we’ve talked about this next story three times. Well, it’s back again after a four-month hiatus. Jet pack guy or person according to the LA Times - Possible jetpack man in sight,’ LAX air traffic control reports
The jetpack person was spotted 15 miles east of LAX at 5,000 feet altitude
Personally, I enjoy air traffic controller call-outs - For example.
“Use caution, the jetpack guy is back,” said one air traffic alert.
Another said, “Use caution, there was a report of a man in a jetpack around 5,000 in the vicinity of Los Angeles.”
At one point, an air traffic controller asked a pilot, “Did you see a UFO?”
The pilot responded. “We were looking but we did not see Iron Man,”
Hitting the airways, again, in July was not the month since both Branson and Bezos took their own, for less of a better term, jetpack into space.
Personally, I would’ve waited another 30 days or so.
The Points Guy posted this stat - 85% of flight attendants say they’ve dealt with unruly passengers this year
CNBC added this - Disputes over mask mandates comprise 75% of FAA’s unruly-passenger complaints on planes
Combine those two and we have this New York Post article - Airline workers taking self-defense courses to deal with unruly passengers
After watching many of the posted videos I can tell you that this course is far more involved than the latest sexual harassment course you had to attend. This course includes practicing elbow strikes and eye gouges as the instructor yelling “You are possibly going to die, you need to defend yourself at all costs”.
If you’ve ever read any sort of a business strategy book more than likely you’ll come across the section about empowering employees., This is it at the ground roots level. Watch out MIA Flight club.
If you want detailed show notes, links and pictures head over to podpage.com/travel-stories/
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As I always say, travel safe, stay safe, and thanks for listening.
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The July Crazy Travel Roundup - Travel Stories, Episode 146