Recorded in the beautiful Hampton Inn and Suites, Duluth, GA.
This is my first Hampton stay since many of the state mask mandates have been lifted. and nothing much has changed.
The desk staff is still wearing masks and positioned behind plexiglass riot shields
There are still COVID signs inside and outside the elevators
The break the seal stickers are still across the door jambs
And my room had a very nice “To our valued guest” letter outlining housekeeping, towels, and asking that we place any trash in the hallway for daily pickup.
Breakfast has been upgraded from the typical brown bag to chaffing trays filled with cheese omelets, limp bacon, and don’t forget the Belgium Waffle maker. The bread and pastries were wrapped in cellophane which many properties were doing long before COVID
Hampton Inn cookie time is back! Back with two, not one, because only skinny people eat a single chocolate chip cookie, and the cookie duo was again wrapped in cellophane for everyone’s health and safety.
There will be at least another hotel stay on the trip back so I’ll provide an update on the next episode.
Onto this month’s crazy travel roundup
If you didn’t know, there’s a long list of things you can’t carry onto a plane
Aerosol Insecticides
Axes and Hatchets - makes sense
Baseball Bats
Bowling Pins
And Vehicle Airbags. Who knew
But did you know that you can bring a sewing machine on board as long as it fits under your seat?
This was all over the Travel Interwebs but View From The Wing is where I can across - Remarkable Passenger Pulls Out Sewing Machine Inflight, Proceeds To Make Curtains.
Sewing machines, short of smashing a fellow passenger in the head with one, it’s a very low-security risk. Fellow passengers claim that Sewy McSewyington was working on a set of curtains. The most productive I’ve ever been on a flight was to finish up a PowerPoint.
View From The Wing rings in again with - Passengers Fight Over Elbows On Arm Rests.
Twitter user Jack Krawczyk tweeted this on June 13th - On my first flight in 15 months, of course, we were rerouted back to the gate because two passengers got into a physical altercation over elbow placement upon armrests.
With over 600 comments and 1300 retweets Jack best summed it up with this - please consider donating to help de-stigmatizing mental health and encouraging support - it is a pandemic that will last longer than COVID:
When it comes to armrests, this is the general rule of thumb. Armrests belong to the person in the middle seat. With the two-seat - aisle - two-seat regional jets, it’s the person in the window seat. Here’s my armrest strategy.
Possibly time for a new Crazy travel Roundup sub-category - The Crazy Travel Social Media Influencers Roundup - Maybe I’m jealous, maybe I wish I could affect a soda companies stock value by encouraging everyone to drink water or turn the tides of a struggling watch company by wearing their latest 47 mm blinged-out piece of wrist candy.
So here we go - Remember Brittany Hockley, me neither, but she made it to the finale of The Bachelor Australia in 2018 and then returned for last year’s Bachelor in Paradise. This is a clear indicator that her career has progressed zero - Anyway, Brittany recently lashed out, on social media that Etihad Airways refused to sell her an upgrade to business or first class – but wanted $1000 to check her luggage. Actually, that’s not what happened. Brittany was traveling overseas and that required extra luggage or as she claims extra gear, Due to Etihad’s luggage policy the extra baggage was going to cost an extra $1000. Weird policy, I spent about 45 seconds on Eithads website but found no way to run up a $1000 luggage charge short of taking every suitcase at Chateau’ Relaxo. Now Brittany was smart she asked that if she dropped the grand could she have an upgrade to one of the available first-class seats…. Smart. Etihad said that wasn’t possible due to it throwing off their catering order. But don’t feel sorry for Brittany as she had almost the whole coach cabin to herself. How do I know that? She posted it on Instagram.
A bit more social media craziness from Live & Let Fly - INSTAGRAM MODEL CAUGHT “PRETENDING” TO FLY EMIRATES BUSINESS CLASS
Here’s the 30,000-foot view - A French model and reality TV star, Oceane El Himer, 27, uploaded a picture of herself on Instagram proudly posing in an Emirates Business Class cabin. Moments later, however, a fan snapped a picture of her in-flight…seated in the economy class cabin. Ah, the life of an Instagrammer…
Busted, but as they say, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Things like this happen all the time. Last year the entrepreneur was planning to update his business card as part of the rebranding he planned to daily rent an exotic car from one of our local shops. A Lambo, AUDI, or Porsche something that defines success… for some people. The genius part of the plan was that he had lined up friends and friends of friends to have their picture taken with the exotic. Profile pictures for Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn… this side hustle would’ve covered the cost of the rental.
When I first started traveling I was a Holiday Inn fanboy, and after each stay, I’d tally my nights and points in anticipation of working my way to the next level blue, silver, gold, and all the perks that came with them. I probably choose Holiday Inn due to growing up in the 1970s and Holiday Inn’s aggressive marketing program, I knew the brand. 20 years ago the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza was their top tier. I remember being in Greenville, SC one evening, and around 8:00 PM there was a knock at the door, and what did I discover upon opening the door but room service with a bottle of wine and a cheese a fruit plate. So I have a warm spot in my heart for the Crowne Plaza.
Apparently, an unidentified woman at the Crowne Plaza Costa Mesa in Orange County, California didn’t have the same fondness. The unidentified woman called 911 and told the operator that she was going to harm herself and set her hotel room on fire.
As expected the police department rushed to the scene and found her inside her burning fourth-floor hotel room…. Maybe they should’ve dispatched the fire department. Turns out she used “combustible materials” to allegedly set her room on fire. Police found “thick smoke and flames inside the room.” Eventually, the fire department was dispatched and extinguished the fire in 14 minutes.
Here’s the take-away, in case you were wondering the police arrived to find a burning room filled with thick smoke I’m thinking those fire sprinklers that are installed in every single hotel room, did better than their fair share to keep the situation under control.
Is anyone familiar with the term Hat Trick? It’s three successes of the same kind, especially consecutive ones within a limited period.
We have a hat trick on our hands and it’s at the MIA Fight Club. First success April, second May and for the hat trick, it’s June. So what happened? Glad you asked.
This time it happened at the American Airlines check-in desks, and this isn’t the norm. The MIA Fight Club usually happens after the hassle of TSA, or onboard a flight, or in baggage claim.
Side note to Spirit Airlines, American is starting to crowd in on your space.
BoingBoing posted - Airline pilot admits whipping penis out in flight deck and watching porn
This happened on August 10 last year on a Philadelphia to Orlando flight.
Now-former airline pilot Michael Haak, 60, was sentenced to a year's probation after admitting lewd conduct in exposing himself to a female first officer and watching porn in the cockpit.
When the flight reached cruising altitude, Haak got out of the pilot's seat, "intentionally disrobed" and watched pornographic media on a laptop. "Haak further engaged in inappropriate conduct in the cockpit, as the first officer continued to perform her duties," federal prosecutors said in a statement. Haak had never met the first officer before the flight, they added.
This needs to be filed in the “Some men are just stupid” drawer. Men gather round and listen, random women don’t want to see your junk. You can have a Dinky Winky or a full-on Python random women don’t want to see it, and if you think they do, you’ve been watching too much porn…. Even though there is a category for random, or so I’ve heard there is. Plus Haak should’ve been busy with other things like I don’t know…. flying the plane. I can only imagine what effect streaming YouPorn had on the bandwidth for the rest of the passengers.
View From The Wing posted - Passenger Taken Off Delta Flight In A Stretcher After Drinking Her Own Alcohol On Board
CBS This Morning Saturday co-host Dana Jacobson live-tweeted the experience, on her recent Delta flight from LAX to JFK.
The flight was forced to divert to Detroit due to a passenger reportedly drinking their own alcohol. Dana’s live tweet even included a video of the passenger being removed on a stretcher.
The article summed it up with this - As the passenger is being taken off the plane she yells, “Did I get physical with anybody on the flight?” as though that would be the only justification for taking her off.
After watching the video, I have a surprising take on this one. The passenger was drunk, and she weighed at most 135 lbs…. I’m sure she’d take offense to that, but other than throwing up she posed a minimal threat to anyone. Take away her booze, grab a handful of zip ties, secure her to her seat and if she runs her mouth grab a towel from the galley place it in her mouth and encourage her to breath through her nose. These passengers were inconvenienced for close to 12 hours over this, it makes no sense.
Brawl, Exploding Cell Phone on Flight Leads to Emergency Landing from Newsweek and the home office - Florida. On Wednesday, a Southwest flight from Dallas to Fort Lauderdale was diverted to Pensacola, Florida to let off two passengers, an unidentified man and a woman traveling together who allegedly got into a scuffle. Let two passengers off, like it’s the Megabus
What triggered the fight is unknown at this time. Three guesses, booze, booze, or booze.
The woman began hitting the man with a cell phone as the woman was hitting him, the phone began to smoke.
"She was beating him with the phone and the phone exploded and caught on fire," said passenger Katie Engleson. "Everyone kind of went crazy and then all of a sudden we see smoke and I heard the words 'fire' and then next to us there was the object literally smoking. It was definitely very, very frightening."
According to Engleson, a few passengers were quick to grab water and take care of the smoldering device, and law enforcement came aboard to escort the couple off the plane.
After the stop in Pensacola, the flight promptly continued to Fort Lauderdale, arriving about 90 minutes late.
Here’s a lesson in contrast and compare -
Delta flight with a drunken 135lb passenger gets diverted and drunken passenger is hauled off on a stretcher ending with a 10 - 12 hour flight delay.
Southwest flight - A fight, an exploding cell phone complete with fire a diversion to Pensacola where Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dumb leave the plane, possibly arrested and possible FAA fine but it ends with only a 90-minute delay.
Which airline would you choose?
We all know about MIA Fight Club, and we all know you don’t talk about MIA Fight Club but how about the MIA Newborn Club. Yep, there is such a thing and it took place on June, 20th 2021 which just so happened to be Father’s Day.
The mother gave birth to a baby girl inside a restroom near Gate D43. The expectant mother had just arrived on an American Airlines flight from Chicago when she went into labor.
To make this even more of a feel-good story, the baby’s name is MIA for Miami Internation Airport.
Thankfully she wasn’t delivered at -
Gage, Oklahoma - GAG
Butler Airport, Missouri - BUM
Safford, Arizona - SAD
Fresno Air Terminal - FAT
This next one was reported on almost every travelverse interweb site. So we’ll take the Cliff Notes from One Mile At A Time
June 11, 2021, Delta flight 1730 from Los Angeles to Atlanta was diverted to Oklahoma City.
Things started going sideways when a passenger seated in the first row of first-class handed a note to the flight attendant claiming that the passenger next to him was a terrorist.
Things continued sideways when the passenger then made an overhead announcement telling people to prepare to put on their oxygen masks, and then he allegedly tried to open the emergency exit door.
Full-on “sideways mode” hit once the captain made an announcement asking for “all-able bodied men” to come to the front of the cabin to restrain the passenger.
Altercations on planes, unfortunately, are now common and we, including myself, want to
What makes this story a bit more uncommon is this.
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.
You have to ask, was he wearing a helmet in preparation for something like this?
And why not put it in the overhead bin?
It was later confirmed that the helmet-wearing passenger was an off-duty flight attendant. That answers the question “How did he how to operate the PA system.
So how did this all end up? Glad you asked.
The DOJ Department of Justice is bringing charges against the helmet-wearing passenger. One count of interference with flight crew members. That’s a biggie.
If convicted, up to 20 years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 fine, then tack on three years of supervision after his release
One Mile At A Time updated their original story with this.
The helmet-wearing passenger allegedly began stashing personal items in a variety of places throughout the plane. When these items were later retrieved, they turned out to be “tennis balls with writings on them, trash, and food.”
Things escalated when the man handed a note to the crew that read as follows:
“I AM ATL BASED, ALERT DELTA MANAGER, TERRORIST ON BOARD. 95835/CONTACT PILOTS.”
This incident is well beyond air-rage or being overserved, this poor gentleman needs help. Thankfully he can get the needed help and not spend 20 years in federal prison.
Let’s call this next one the King Burger
In October 2020, a man on a JetBlue flight from Jamaica to New York was arrested after hurling racial slurs at other passengers and assaulting a flight attendant. - This is not OK
The confrontation among passengers escalates as the White passenger calls other passengers the N-word. He also calls another passenger a b---- during his racist rant. This is not OK.
Eventually, a flight attendant tells the man, “I don’t care what she did. You’re being disrespectful. Shut the f--- up for just two seconds.”
During this whole tirade, the passenger was sporting a paper Burger King crown, as in what you would get with a kids meal. He was yanked off the plane before it left Jamaica, and JetBlue has banned this passenger for life. Finally, this is OK
In the words of Billy Mays, “But wait there’s more” of course there is, there’s always more.
A few weeks later, The Burger King tried to leave his kingdom, again, and this time on American Airlines. And as you would expect he once again got kicked off the flight for….. Using racial slurs. But this time he did have a defense. It was that he was talking to himself rather than directing it at the black passengers around him
And yes, he was once again wearing a Burger King crown, not sure if it was the same crown or not.
Fast forward a few months, and it seems that The Racist Burger King only got banned from Jet Blue airlines back in October. Because he recently boarded an American Airline JFK to FLL.
Yes he was wearing the crown, yes he was hurling racist insults, and yes he, once again claimed that he was talking to himself.
I know TSA is busy, but how many adults are passing through wear a Burger King crown? This gut should be relatively easy to stop.
As I get older I tend to get a bit more nostalgic -
Recently for my morning coffee, I’ve been hand-grinding the beans and using a tea kettle to boil the water.
Our herb garden has replaced the need to buy dried spices at the grocery store.
And we’re using cast iron more and more to cook with.
I guess the last 14 or 15 months have changed me.
One thing that I really miss is the old days of the Crazy Travel Roundup
Things like
Gentleman arrested for using mice and hamsters to get free hotel rooms
Somebody swiped weed from Chicago airport’s “Cannabis Amnesty Box”
This level of craziness takes thought, it takes planning. It seems that currently the best thing we can do is fight each other, at check-in, at the boarding area, or 30,000” overhead. Come on people, we’re better than this. For July we need some nudity, someone smuggling finches into the country, or someone that’s been living in a vacant hotel room for the last three months.
If you want detailed show notes, links and pictures head over to PodPage
As I always say, travel safe, stay safe, and thanks for listening.
Thanks for listening.
Leave a message on Anchor, or shoot me an email atTravelFrick@gmail.com.
The June Crazy Travel Roundup - Travel Stories, Episode 144