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Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

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Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

#73
post #59
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.

Ever have this happen? It doesn't happen this way. They have special space for "checked carryon." they ticket it with a special ticket and put it in a SEPARATE part of the plane. When you unload the flight attendants get the "checked carryon" and put it next to the door, then you grab it on your way out. I sat on the front of a small plane before and there was no space for carryon at all on that seat. There was no se…

This weekend, my partner had her backpacked gate-checked, but it didn't go to the separate part of the plane. It became checked luggage, which then failed to come off the plane and landed in another airport. Fun times having a carryon lost on you.

Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

#75
post #30

Can people please stop using "hacking" about every little tweak, tip, or technique to gain something?

A hack is a novel solution using existing technology outside of its primary intended use case. Even though this is a 'social hack', a hack is nonetheless exactly what this is.

Is there any technology at work here? How is this not a bad faith scam?

Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

#76
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shoplifting can be a bit of an art. I agree with you that the “hacking” thing is overused, but I think it makes sense to call something like booster bags a “hack”, for example. There are lots of “hacks” for shoplifting.

Aren't hackers notorious for being interested in things like lockpicking? And that interest is based on an interest in taking apart a system? Shoplifting has worse consequences than recreational lockpicking, but I could see it having some of the same system deconstruction appeal if approached in the right way (not advocating shoplifting, by the way)

I completely agree, except I am advocating shoplifting. I also wish there were more hackers who would use their lockpicking skills for more than just recreation. I feel like the idea that “hacking” can only be motivated by pure curiousity, and not by anything political or in any way threatening, is an idea that serves the interests of the people in power. They don't want us to think about or analyse our political situation, or to try to change it; they would rather divert our attention and our abilities towards solving rather pointless puzzles, which at best are inconsequential, or at worst just make them even more money.

Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

#77
post #20

I work in a pretty big GDS/IT company and that wouldn't happen in our systems. Virtually no airline asks for such a retarded business rule, flexible classes allow generally 1 to 5 changes in departure date/time(no questions asked), after that it requires manual intervention on a case by case basis.

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…

If they used a cryptographic signature, they could detect ticket tampering without networking the barcode readers. I'd be somewhat surprised if they actually did that, but it would make it much harder to forge them.

Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

#78

The "hack" I've seen the most frequently is buying a ticket that gets you in the priority lane in addition to a standard ticket so that one can go through minimal security wait times and then cancel the ticket in time for a refund.

Couldn't it get you in trouble? You'd have to check your bags under the standard ticket, but enter security under the premium one, and airport security might realize they have the same person on the flight twice. I thought that was a classic red flag?

Barring extraordinary circumstances, checking bags while flying is a textbook case of doing it wrong.

Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably refundable within 24/48h of the purchase. Many companies do that. Normal penalties apply from then on. So unless you buy your ticket in the last moment, no, it wouldn't work.

No, fully refundable fares are fully refundable at any time up to the flight. That's the whole point of a "fully-refundable" fare; it has no penalties for refunds. This is made pretty clear in the fare rules, and is the basic reason to buy full-fare tickets rather than discount fares (apart from the mileage bonus, I guess). The 24 hour limit is for refunds on non-refundable fares. Most airlines will still let you can…

I thought the basic reason for full fare tickets was to show economy on your expense report but get an immediate, guaranteed upgrade.

Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals

#80

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've never flown domestically in China, but I remember security being worse than in America. I remember having to take my shoes off before it became standard in America and having to go through security a second time right before getting on the plane where all the drinks I bought after security had to be thrown out.
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