Shanghai-based Spring Airlines wants flight attendants to dress as maids and butlers.
A Chinese budget airline is facing criticism after announcing plans to dress up its flight attendants as maids and butlers. Spring Airlines, operating out of Shanghai since 2005, said the idea actually came from its "international crew of qualified Chinese, Japanese and [Thai] cabin staff," and is not intended to objectify them with revealing attire. But on social media and blogs, critics said the airline should focus on better pricing and on-time arrivals. Still, Spring Airlines will offer more costume-themed flights. Logically, the next one should honour housekeepers and janitors.
Business travel gone bad
If you think all business travellers enjoy a lifestyle of soulless self-indulgence, like George Clooney in Up in the Air, it's time for a reality check. A New York Times report recently compiled some horror stories. An electrical engineer from New Jersey locked himself in his hotel bathroom, and, after no one answered his cries for help, he had to use a rod from the toilet to unhinge the door. A North Carolina inspector of radioactive materials entered his motel room and promptly stepped on a poisonous copperhead snake – fortunately, he was wearing steel-toed boots. Those frequent flyer points aren't sounding so good now, are they?
Just pretend you're a baggage handler
According to Dallas police reports, employees at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport have been repeatedly caught using their security badges to sneak family, friends and assorted items through off-limits areas. An American Airlines flight attendant snuck a knapsack in and gave it to her husband, boarding a flight for Germany. A Continental Airlines employee got his family into a cargo van and drove them across the airport ramp to the terminal. Even the chief operating officer of American Eagle Airlines reportedly took his wife through an employee portal without authorization to meet their arriving daughter. Incidents like these mean we can all look forward to more cavity searches.
Sources: The Telegraph, New York Times, NBC.