The Wrap takes a look at some of the more unusual travel stories that have crossed our desk this week: Lost kids, toilet travel and cheating airlines. It’s been quite a week.
The Wrap can confess to a time, long ago, when after a long lunch at a restaurant overlooking a near-deserted beach in Crete, he got up to pay the bill, forgetting that a new born daughter was asleep in a cot under the table.
Fortunately, Mr and Mrs Wrap had not reached the door when they realised that someone special had been behind.
A family in Canada this week had a rather more distressing experience – although in their case they could not blame it on the Greek retsina wine.
Several newspapers carried the story about a family from the Philippines taking connecting flights to Winnipeg from Vancouver international airport who inadvertently left behind their 23-month-old son.
Running late to their gate, the family became separated.
The boy's father told local media he had thought his son was with his wife and the boy's grandparents, who ran ahead. They thought the boy was with his dad.
On the plane, the family members were seated separately and so did not immediately realise they had left the child behind.
The Wrap is glad to report that the story had a happy ending – but not before the father flew back from Winnipeg to collect his son, who was somewhat bemused by his first day in Canada.
Read the full story here
Flushed out: The passenger in seat WC1
USA Today has run an Associated Press story about a New York City man who is suing JetBlue Airways because he says a pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than three hours on a flight from California.
Gokhan Mutlu says in court papers the pilot told him to "go hang out in the bathroom" about 90 minutes into the San Diego to New York flight because a flight attendant complained that the "jump seat" she was assigned was uncomfortable, the lawsuit said.
Mutlu was travelling on a "buddy pass," a standby travel voucher that JetBlue employees can give to friends.
When the aircraft hit turbulence and passengers were directed to return to their seats, "the plaintiff had no seat to return to, sitting on a toilet stool with no seat belts," court papers say.
Read the full story here.
Flying us crazy?
An interesting story in the UK’s Independent newspaper. It appears consumers are being ripped off, deliberately confused and misled by the websites of leading airlines, a report for the European Commission has found.
A survey of 386 websites in 13 European countries discovered that just under a third were breaking the law, either by concealing charges or misleading the public with promotional offers that were not in fact obtainable.
The European Commission is taking enforcement action against 137 of the websites. Ryanair, Austrian Airlines and the Finnish airline Blue 1 were among the offenders, according to Swedish and Norwegian authorities, while third parties such as tour operators and travel agents also came under fire.
Read more here
Read the full story here.
