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It's time to stop worrying about dying in a plane crash! Sure, the inconvenience and unpleasantness of flying may sometimes make you wish you were dead, but, according to new statistics, air travel is becoming increasingly less likely to actually kill you. More »
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Lynn Jones, the baggage handler who was fired after she refused to transport a dog who looked like he was being abused, has been offered her job back. Her employer, Airport Terminal Services, will also make a donation to the Nevada Humane Society. The dog above expresses how we feel about this decision. More »
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Due to a combination of circumstances, I have taken over twenty plane flights this year. I do not recommend this and will try not to replicate it in the future. I have, however, learned a few things about life during my Year of Flying Constantly. And now I'm sharing them with you. More »
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One of the many things that makes air travel so shitty these days is checked-baggage fees, which cause people to clog both overhead bins and security checkpoints with their carryons. But now, Sen. Mary Landrieu has proposed a bill that would guarantee fliers one free checked bag, force airlines to clearly advertise all additional fees as part of the ticket price, and mandate "certain minimum standards" for air travel. Predictably, the airline industry does not like this. Steve Lott, spokesman for the Air Transport Association, told the Washington Post, More »
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Good news and terrible news, pet owners. The good news is that even if your pet gets lost by an airline, there's a chance that it will be found alive, living in the ventilation ducts months later. The bad news is that once your pet gets found, it might be almost dead. And if your pet's never found, it might be because some asshole stole it and sold it to a lab. There is literally a petpocalypse happening right this minute. More »
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No matter what happens on your next flight, you should consider yourself lucky if you don't wind up covered in a stranger's bodily fluids. Yesterday during a flight from Portland, Oregon to New York, a father left his 11-year-old daughter in her seat while he took his other daughter to the bathroom. When he returned, he found 18-year-old Robert Vietze peeing on the girl. Vietze had consumed eight drinks on the plane and later told police, "I was drunk, and I did not realize I was pissing on her leg." The two men nearly came to blows and had to be separated. More »
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In another unfortunate tale of TSA incompetence, Carole A. Smith, a former transportation security officer at Albany International Airport, was fired in 2009 after another employee accused her of putting a hex on the heater in her car. More »
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Thailand's ironically-named airline P.C. Air claims it's the first in the world to hire openly transsexual flight attendants. When the airline begins flying Asian routes in April, four transsexual people will be among the 30-person cabin crew, Forbes reports. More »
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After this weekend's Northeast snowpocalypse, you've probably been hearing stories about travelers delayed for hours, even days. So how does shit get so bad that your flight is pushed back a whole week? Allow me to explain, firsthand. More »
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What with body scans and TSA gropings, this promises to be an especially hellish holiday travel season. But travel has always been an opportunity for horrible and/or hilarious mishaps, and now we want to hear about yours. More »
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In this video, Cebu Pacific flight attendants show passengers how to use the life jackets and oxygen masks while dancing to pop music. Remember, in the unlikely event of an emergency you should... uh, "just dance"? More »
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In response to a lawsuit, British Airways has changed its policy to allow men to sit next to unaccompanied minors. And now it's time for everyone else to acknowledge that just being a dude doesn't make you a pedophile. More »
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Three children, ages 15 and under, bought tickets with cash and flew to Nashville in an attempt to visit Dollywood. Southwest defended employees for not questioning them, saying kids don't need ID and two were old enough to fly alone. More »
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Facebook's customer satisfaction score is now as low as that of airlines, and while experts point to site changes and ads as reasons for this distaste, we think there's a more basic explanation: Facebook complicates your life. More »
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• A Washington D.C. police office was caught on video this weekend waving his gun at a large group of adults having a snowball fight. When confronted, he said he drew his gun, ''because I got hit with snowballs.'' More »
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A recent article about an overweight woman who was told "I'm sorry, but you're too fat" by EasyJet airport security has been denounced as a hoax. However, EasyJet policy does allow workers to "suggest" fat passengers buy two tickets. [Telegraph] More »
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A new airline says it's inviting only animals as passengers. Beginning July 14, Pet Airways will fly to NYC, Washington, Chicago, Denver, and LA. Animals will travel in the main cabin, not the cargo hold, and, on arrival, will be dropped off at a pet lounge where owners can retrieve them. As for the human elements, think they'll be called "bite attendants"? [UPI] More »
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Cheap Irish airline, Ryanair, has called Sweden's Trade Ethical Council against Sexism in Advertising (ERK) "old farts" and "anti-funsters" after the ERK condemned a sexist Ryanair ad featuring a scantily-clad schoolgirl. Ryanair defends its ad against sexist charges by saying it "reflects reality" and that "young women around Europe want to look their best." How image-conscious young women translates to a woman dressing up in a porn-y schoolgirl outfit to sell discounted airline tickets isn't addressed by the Ryanair representatives. However, the airline bravely states that they "defend the right of Swedish girls to take their clothes off." [UPI] More »
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After we posted about airline hostesses of yesteryear, someone alerted us to UniformFreak.com. Cliff Muskiet works for KLM and collects everything airline-related, including uniforms. One day he hopes to have a museum! In the meantime, all of the fun and colorful stewardess outfits of past and present inspired us to do a quiz. Can you guess where a lady offering you tea is from just by the color and cut of her company-issued garments? Find out by taking the quiz after the jump. More »
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Wired has a story and slide show about airline hostesses of yesteryear. In 1930, Ellen Church became the world's first airline stewardess, working a Boeing flight from Oakland, California, to Chicago. The flight took 20 hours and involved 13 stops. Church was a registered nurse who later became a pilot, but the idea of having nurses onboard caught on. Except times being what they were, the nurses were "sky girls." They had to be single, under 25, no taller than 5-feet-4, and weigh no more than 115 pounds. By the '60s, stewardesses were basically hot-pants and go-go boot wearing model/waitresses. My mom was a TWA flight attendant back in the day (the gloves and miniskirt were mandatory) and she says, "It was loads of fun. We were like celebrities. But we hated the fact that they weighed us once a month. You couldn't be over 135 lbs." [Wired, Wired] More »
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Despite what airline ads might lead you to believe, not every woman in the airline industry is a flight attendant. In this week's Village Voice, the female students at Aviation High in Long Island City, Queens are profiled. At Aviation, students are taught to become licensed airplane mechanics, and, not surprisingly, the male to female ratio is a little...uneven. But even though 14% of Aviation's student body is female, these burgeoning airplane fixers are no shrinking violets; in fact, there is a disproportionate amount of women filling leadership positions. "This year, all the officers of Pegasus, an honors society for shop classes, are girls. Last year, [senior Estrella] Ham was third in a line of female wing commanders of ROTC, which is the largest and most respected extracurricular activity at the school," first semester wing commander, Ana Sanchez, tells the Voice. "We deal with something the boys don't deal with. We have to prove ourselves. It's not going to be just as easy for me to pick up a tire as it is for a boy who weighs more than I do and is taller than me and is stronger than me, but I'm going to have to get the job done eventually." More »
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Here's an angle for anyone looking to produce a sequel to Soul Plane... A German airline is offering nudist flights because the Germans have loved being naked ever since the days of Kaiser Willhelm or something. "There are a few basic rules. For example, no hot drinks will be served and there will be certain hygienic regulations. Passengers won't be sitting directly on the seats but on specially sized cloths laid on them. And the crew will have to remain clothed, too," says the CEO. Oh yeah, and no groping! [Spiegel] More »
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