Travel News

Icarus Award: No Pants, No Groping, No Entertainment, No Snoring, No Nazis

Golden Wings Of Icarus - photo via Flickr User debaird(tm)

Locations in this article:  Chicago, IL London, England Los Angeles, CA

Drumroll, please. It’s time to announce the first winner of the PeterGreenberg.com Icarus Award. While voting was split between a variety of worthy contestants, our executive committee convened and declared JetBlue our first Icarus winner.

Yes, JetBlue’s “carmageddon” flight stunt was a brilliant PR move—flying Southern Californians between Burbank and Long Beach for $4 during last weekend’s closure of the 405 freeway. But its moment of glory was quickly eclipsed by the Wolfpack Hustle cycling group, which actually beat the flight’s jet engines with pedal power.

So while carmageddon traffic turned out to be a non-issue on the roads, Icarus would surely agree that there’s no such thing as bad press.

And now it’s time to check out the new competitors for this week’s Icarus Award…

1) Who wears short shorts?

ID? Check. Boarding pass? Check. Pants? Not so much. Better make sure your pants are visible before your next flight. Malinda Knowles, a 27-year-old financial consultant, is now suing JetBlue over an incident last week at JFK, which she claims was “humiliating, degrading and highly inappropriate.”

Having boarded a flight for West Palm Beach, Knowles was approached by JetBlue employee Victor Rodriguez, who allegedly said ,“I don’t want to see your panties, but do you have any on?” The state of Knowles’ undergarments were in question because she was wearing denim shorts that were hard to detect beneath her long T-shirt. Cops escorted her to a hangar area where they confirmed she was, in fact, wearing shorts and put her back on the flight. However, further trouble ensued and Knowles was booted off the flight. She is seeking unspecified damages.

In a statement, JetBlue said it is currently conducting an investigation to understand the facts of the situation. According to JetBlue spokeswoman Allison Steinberg, “Based on our preliminary findings, JetBlue disputes the claims made by this customer and fully stand behind our crewmembers’ handling of the situation.  Pending litigation, we have no further comment.”

TSA Pat Down2) Hands to Yourself

It seems that every day someone complains about the TSA being too hands-on and violating our civil rights, but last week Yukari Miyamae decided to give the TSA a taste of its own medicine. Prosecutors in Arizona are now debating whether to press felony charges against the 61-year-old woman who allegedly grabbed the breast of an unidentified TSA agent after refusing to go through passenger screening. Miyamae was arrested on suspicion of sexual abuse and eventually released on her own recognizance.

3) Duty-Free Royals

Still not sure what to give the Royal couple as a belated wedding gift? How about $300 in duty-free vouchers? British Airways gave newlyweds Will and Kate the vouchers to compensate for a broken in-flight entertainment system in the first class cabin when the couple flew 10 hours from Los Angeles to London. The Duke and Duchess were reported to have remained “relaxed and friendly” on the journey, despite the inconvenience. There has been no official word on what the Royal couple will do with the vouchers.

4) No-Snore Zone

There’s nothing worse than being kept up at night by someone snoring. The Crowne Plaza hotel chain has a unique fix: snore patrols. In addition to “snore absorption rooms,” guests who choose to stay in the designated quiet zones of the hotel’s London, Leeds and Manchester locations will have snore monitors patrolling the hallway to listen for “offensive noises” and to knock on the door of guests who snore too loudly. Guests are subject to being evicted from the quiet zone if they violate the no-snoring policy.

Icarus & Daedalus Mural in Chicago - via Flickr user swanksalot

Icarus and Daedalus Mural in Chicago - photo via Flickr user swanksalot

5) The No-Tell Motel

 

The Baltic Sea is lovely this time of year, but a new budget hostel might rival the hotel from The Shining for the creepiest summer travel spot. Germany’s largest building, a Nazi-built resort complex, located on an island in the Baltic Sea, is now gaining popularity as a beach hostel. Originally called Kraft durch Freude (“strength through joy”), the complex is large enough to house 20,000 people. After the reunification of Germany, the complex was given a heritage listing, which prevented would-be entrepreneurs seeking to develop it. Now the German hostel association Deutsches Jugendherbergswerk has installed a 400-bed hostel in the corner of the massive complex now known as Prora. As many as 1,000 guests have stayed so far.

With travel blunders in the sky and by the beach, it’s your turn to vote for this week’s Icarus winner. Will JetBlue’s PR team and pants inspectors cause it fly away with the first two Icarus Awards? Will the 61-year-old arrested for groping back at the TSA take the prize? BA’s bungling involving the newlywed royals? Snore patrols? Prora? Cast your vote in the comments section below!

By Lily J. Kosner for PeterGreenberg.com. Photos in this article used via Creative Commons license from Flickr users debaird(tm) (1st photo) and swanksalot (3rd photo). This article was updated on July 25th to add JetBlue’s statement about the short shorts incident.

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