Plane food
No need to bother the cabin crew if you're hungry — indeed, no need to bother catching the plane at all (Image: Arcturus)
A TRUE story that seems to fly in the face of the received wisdom that there’s no such thing as a free lunch involves China Eastern Airlines — maybe other airlines as well.
It has emerged that a customer bought a first-class ticket from the airline — a fully flexible and refundable ticket which entitled him not only to first class travel, but also to partake of free meals and drink in the VIP lounge. This the passenger did for almost a year, changing his departure time every time he wanted a slap-up meal in pleasant surroundings. He never flew anywhere; wasn’t really much of a traveller to be honest. But he did like his grub.
The itinerary for the ticket was found to have been changed more than 300 times within a year, and the owner of the ticket used it to “fully enjoy the facilities at the airport’s VIP lounge in Xi’an in Shaanxi, China”.
The case was uncovered by a China Eastern Airlines staff member who decided to investigate. He found that when the ticket’s validity was almost up, the passenger cancelled it for a refund.
An airlines spokesman said there were no legal way to stop this.
I’m not sure if other airlines operate this system, but I aim to find out. And I’ll let any airline CEO know. We might even have dinner together in the VIP lounge.