The Globe and Mail’s 2013 Travel Infamy Awards
The article The best of the worst travel behaviour in 2013 was published in the Globe and Mail. The title of the page is ‘It takes all kinds: The Globe’s 29th Annual Travel Infamy Awards’ hence the title of the post.
Some of the awards:
The You Think You’re So Clever Award
… goes to U.S. TV producer Elan Gale, who kept the Twittersphere engrossed with a live blow-by-blow account of his battle with Diane, a fellow passenger on his Thanksgiving flight who was rude to attendants and everyone around her. Their spat swiftly escalated – he sent a note telling her to eat a part of his anatomy and she later slapped him – while thousands giddily retweeted everything as it unfolded. Several days later, Gale – who accrued 150,000 Twitter followers during the argument – admitted he had made the whole thing up. In a rare show of social media unity, the entire Internet curled its lip and called him a jerk.
I remember the story, but only now did I find out it wasn’t true, not that I cared about it too much in the first place, I don’t think I read any of the tweets.
The What’s Your Real Name Award
… goes to Sydney-based Peter Hook, a senior communications executive at Accor hotels, who posted critical TripAdvisor reviews of other hotels under a pseudonym. He wrote about an InterContinental “which was stuck in a time warp and rather expensive” and a Hyatt where “the very ordinary bar food, high prices and ordinary service didn’t match the music or the light show.” But he was not always damning. He loved one property where “staff were fantastic and friendly” and another where “it was noticeable that families from the adjacent Hilton and Sheraton hotels were sneaking in to use the pool.” Coincidentally, these glowing commentaries were for Accor properties. When his handiwork was discovered, Hook stood by his “reasonable” appraisals. TripAdvisor said: “All reviews posted by this member are being removed pending investigation.”
The Duly Restrained Passenger Award
… goes to the drunken first-class flyer on a LOT Polish Airlines flight to Toronto from Warsaw who, in a rage at being denied more booze, attempted to storm the cockpit and strangle the crew. Desperate for assistance to subdue the man, an attendant approached the plane’s largest passenger, only to find that he was an off-duty police officer and a goalie with Justice Hockey Canada, and that the rest of his 17-member team – all cops – was also on board. The officers took control of the situation and restrained the man in a seat, averting an emergency landing.
This reminded me of an incident that happened in 2011 when 2 former executives from BlackBerry forced an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Beijing to divert to Vancouver due to a “drunken tantrum“.
“The airplane captain said he had never seen anything like this in 38 years of flying,” the document states. “One of the flight attendants took time off work as a result of stress caused to her by the incident.”