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Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

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Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

#111

Post by dsrguru »

Gepser wrote: post #87
geoka9 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Skytrain in Vancouver goes from the downtown to YVR in about 30 minutes. It is possible to go to the airport and back on a $2.75 ticket (on weekends and holidays; the ticket is valid for 90 minutes).

Here in Guatemala you can take public transportation for about 0.125 USD, if you live near to the airport it could be worth the time.

I don't specifically know about Xi'an, but I remember in 2012 subways in Beijing were a flat 2 rmb (about 0.35 USD) and in Shanghai something like 2 to 4 rmb depending on distance. Nanjing was similar, but I don't remember the specifics. So assuming all Chinese cities that have subways charge the same order of magnitude, this loophole would have indeed been valuable.

Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

#112

Post by BryantD »

chime wrote: post #31
leoedin wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the apparent desire for early boarding. Almost every airport lounge I've been in has been more comfortable than the aircraft. The plane's not going to leave without you. I much prefer sitting in the lounge and wandering on last.

Space for carry-on luggage is limited. If you board last, there is a high possibility that the airline will check-in your carry-on luggage instead. This will cause you a delay since now you need to wait in the baggage claim area after arrival. Had you boarded just 5mins prior, someone else might have to wait 30mins in baggage claim instead of you.

Don't use a roller bag -- get one of the many soft-sided bags sized to fit carry-on spaces. Your odds get much, much better.

Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

#113

Post by dragonwriter »

joezydeco wrote: post #19
shangxiao wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By the 100th visit they'd get suspicious that you're scoping out the joint for a terrorist act.

Not if you tell them you're just going to eat. Seems like that's pretty easy to confirm. Why be sneaky about it? Obviously nobody at the airline lounge cared that this guy showed up every day, why would the guards care?

> Not if you tell them you're just going to eat.

That assumes that on-scene guards ask questions of the subject before reporting observed suspicious behavior (which may or may not be the case, and is even less likely the case in the event that the "guards" that observe the behavior are automated face/gait/etc. recognition systems looking for unusual patterns.)

Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

#114

Post by daemin »

leoedin wrote: post #27
brk wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm thinking he never changed the actual flight info, he just manually "photoshopped" the data on the ticket. Even with the barcodes, many airports and lounges do not actually check the barcodes, they just visually verify the info. There was a story a few years back when Delta and some others started doing boarding by zones. People were doing online checking, saving their printable ticket as a PDF or whatever, and ed…

I don't understand the apparent desire for early boarding. Almost every airport lounge I've been in has been more comfortable than the aircraft. The plane's not going to leave without you. I much prefer sitting in the lounge and wandering on last.

It does in the USA, even if you have a single ticket that has a connection, said connection will leave without you, even if your bag has already been packed on the connecting flight.

Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

#115

Post by salvadors »

rtkwe wrote: post #85
Falling3 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that?

Checking bags adds a lot of time to your trip after the plane lands, you have to wait ages in many cases for the ground crews to unload and process your baggage. In addition the size for carry-on luggage is pretty large with a small amount of work you can pretty easily get all you need for a trip into the carry-on baggage.

> the size for carry-on luggage is pretty large

That's not so true in Europe, where many airlines have a quite strict size and weight limit (e.g. 8kg @ 55cm x 40cm x 20cm)

Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

#116

Post by rtkwe »

salvadors wrote: post #115
rtkwe wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Checking bags adds a lot of time to your trip after the plane lands, you have to wait ages in many cases for the ground crews to unload and process your baggage. In addition the size for carry-on luggage is pretty large with a small amount of work you can pretty easily get all you need for a trip into the carry-on baggage.

> the size for carry-on luggage is pretty large That's not so true in Europe, where many airlines have a quite strict size and weight limit (e.g. 8kg @ 55cm x 40cm x 20cm)

The size is basically the same everywhere because there's limited difference in the planes. EG American Airlines which I just flew has the limit of 56 x 36 x 23 cm. Big enough for a one week duffel easily.

Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

#117

Post by ersii »

ersii wrote: post #94
chime wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Space for carry-on luggage is limited. If you board last, there is a high possibility that the airline will check-in your carry-on luggage instead. This will cause you a delay since now you need to wait in the baggage claim area after arrival. Had you boarded just 5mins prior, someone else might have to wait 30mins in baggage claim instead of you.

Uh, excuse me - what? If the overhead compartments for carry-on baggage is full - you got plenty of space under the seat in front of you. The only exception is really if you're by the emergency exits - then you're not allowed to have anything that could obstruct or confuse people when they make their way to the emergency exit.

Well, that came out silly in hindsight - of course there are more options than the overhead compartment and under the chair in front of you.

What I was trying to say is that I've found it unusual that I've not been able to put my carry-on baggage under the chair in front of me and I have not noticed the flight crew having to handle any other options than the two above.

Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

#118

Post by elektronaut »

smnrchrds wrote: post #60
stupandaus wrote: post #9

The idea of having to go through security everyday for free meals sounds unpalatable.

This story happened in China. I don't know about China, but maybe their airport security is not as bad as U.S. Personal story: Bringing liquids to airplanes is not allowed in Iran. I remember on our flight back from Shiraz, we brought about 8 liters of rose water, orange blossom water, etc. with us. The security saw it in the screen and asked what the liquid was. "Herbal water", I said. He nodded and called, "Next".…

I flew from the airport in question to Shanghai a couple of months ago.

Security wasn't unpleasant, but it took a while, there was a long and slow moving line. We had to discard lighters and show passports, but the latter is par for the course in China. It feels like the Chinese are slightly more overbearing with foreigners, which helps, since there's a huge language barrier.

We where lugging a flight case of cymbals, which got quite a lot of attention and laughter from the operators going through the x-ray.

Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

#119

Post by tashi »

rhizome wrote: post #83
tashi wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine you're a guard there and I drop by every day for a meal. You're wondering if I'm a a terrorist looking for security holes while I eat, and your biggest concern is false negatives: you would hate to rule me out as a threat and then find out I blew up your airport. What questions would you ask me to figure that out?

Can't prove a negative. Next question?

There's a reason you don't often see phrases like, "Can't prove a negative," used by people whose job is to evaluate security risks. The relevant way of approaching problems like these tends to use a lot less Boole and a lot more Bayes.

So, same question, and this time really think about it: you are capable of keeping an eye on a limited number of potential threats, you can never completely disprove that any individual means you harm, but you have to look as carefully as you can at the most plausible threats in the time you have available. How suspicious is my behavior, and what evidence would it take to convince you that my threat is negligible? What about the idea that you might personally be blamed if you cleared me and I later turned out to be a terrorist: does that affect your calculations? If so, is that in the best interests of the airport, or just you personally?

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