Throughout the week, our team shares articles they’ve stumbled upon that may interest our readers, even if they might not otherwise merit a full post. Here are some of the posts we found interesting this week: Too many bananas in your luggage, Southwest’s Streisand effect, Avianca bans and sues an influencer, and rescues on the rise in the UK.
Passenger Ate A Dozen Bananas At LAX Check-In — To Beat An Overweight Bag Fee
While this isn’t really news, it is amusing, and makes me wonder: what unexpected things have you done to address your baggage weight or quantity limits, last-minute? For this man, it was eating a dozen bananas before checking into his JetBlue flight in LAX, in hopes of getting the baggage weight below the limit. I’ve seen Nick board a first-class flight wearing an entire stack of hats before (more to free up his hands than to manipulate baggage weight, though I think.) What’s your story? What’s the weirdest thing you’ve done to quickly comply with baggage allowance?
Southwest caused a sort of Streisand effect for themselves when they were intentionally elusive about policy changes, notifying customers in an email that changes had been made to their privacy policy but not specifying what those changes were, and in turn causing speculation that amplified attention instead of muting it. Gary at View from the Wing has pointed out that the triggering information that’s been such a cause for speculation actually came from earlier policy changes, which are just now circulating in forums and discussion boards. Those changes allude to customer tracking and profiling, etc, and have people concerned that profile-based dynamic pricing is on the horizon. This isn’t necessarily what the policy updates say, though. And if we’re going to get in a tizzy over something, let’s at least do it with accuracy – for example, by acknowledging that the policy changes causing such a stir are not actually brand new, and have been in effect for some time. This doesn’t mean the changes aren’t concerning, but at least those changes apparently didn’t immediately precede the dynamic pricing folks are so worried about. Of course, that could still be on the horizon.
Avianca Bans & Sues Influencer Over Inflight Stink Bomb “Accident”
Despite being a kind of influencer ourselves, we can readily admit that Tik Tok and Instagram influencers ruin so many things for people. For example, there’s the Nine Arches bridge in Sri Lanka that’s now riddled with influencers who are literally hanging off the moving train, trying to nab the perfect Instagram shot. Or there’s the “man-on-the-street” interviews that became so popular, but also annoying to folks who are just trying to go about their day in a major city. Well, now we can add flying to the list of things being ruined, as a popular Tik Tok and Instagram influencer Yeferson Cossio detonated a stink bomb on an Avianca flight from Bogota to Madrid. Presumably, this was supposed to be just a practical joke (played on an entire plane full of people), but Avianca took it very seriously, canceling Cossio’s return flight and pursuing legal action against him. Cossio claims that while he was indeed flying with the stink bomb for an intended prank, he had no intention of performing that prank on a plane, and detonated it by accident while trying to get something out of his bag.
Where responsibility lies when social media inspired mountaineers get into trouble
You may not think of England and Wales as a particularly dangerous or harsh environment, but the hills of the Lake District can become cold enough for hypothermia at nightfall, as unprepared tourists have been discovering. And other mountain hot spots like Yr Wyddfa, Snowdon (I’m not going to try to pronounce that one), see fatalities each year. According to the CEO of Mountain Rescue England and Wales, rescue calls have been increasing drastically since the Covid-19 pandemic, and surprisingly, these callouts are mostly coming from 18 to 24-year-olds. This age group has now surpassed the 50-year-olds for rescue calls. Social media may have something to do with it. At least that’s what some rescuers speculate. In one case, the rescue team discovered that their rescue of a group from the highest peak in Northern Ireland had been partially live-streamed by the rescue-ees. The rescue teams are glad to see an increased interest in outdoor exploration, though, and this increased interest is surely part of the equation.
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There’s always miles in the banana stand.