Diagram of a man wearing Tefillin and a yarmulke while praying

A Jewish teenager who reportedly had no time to put on tefillin and pray before his early morning flight on US Airways bound for Louisville from New York decided to be efficient with his time and pray while in flight. After all, there is no harm in praying on-board an aircraft while in flight — right?

The only problem is that he did not consider how other people on the aircraft might react to his putting on tefillin — a daily ritual practiced for thousands of years by those who adhere to the laws of Judaism — and the result was that the aircraft was diverted to Philadelphia.

Was the whole situation merely a fluke and a misunderstanding, or did the teenager do anything wrong or make a mistake?

Follow the details of the story — as well as reaction by FlyerTalk members — in the following threads:

• US Flight Diverted to PHL After Bomb Scare
• US 3079 LGA-SDF diverts, security concerns

The Gate has referred you to The Most Overrated Restaurant, although there was not one particular restaurant that definitively won this distinction outright.

What do you consider to be Well Deserved Highly Rated Restaurants?

FlyerTalk members list restaurants from around the world that are not necessarily the best — rather, simply deserve to be highly rated.

Of course, the definition of the term well deserved highly rated may vary from one person to another, as the contributing factors can range from ambiance to cost to location to service to quality of food…

No, the award stay itself is not costing US$3,000, but rather that is the amount charged to the credit card of FlyerTalk member PedroNY. Why he incurred a $3,000 charge to redeem 6-Night VIP in Sydney???

PedroNY was attempting to book an award reservation at the Hilton Sydney in January of 2011. While he was assured that the deposit would be returned to him after his stay, he cringed at the thought of losing the use of US$3,000 for an entire year.

Find out what advice PedroNY was given by fellow FlyerTalk members to avoid having his credit card charged US$3,000 for an entire year, as well as who actually made money on this policy as a result of unexpected arbitrage…

Instead of offering the traditional bed turn-down service, a hotel in the UK offers a human bed warmer. That could really turn up the heat!

A Nut-free zone ordered on Air Canada has some FlyerTalk members griping, while others joke about the whole issue. However, for those people who suffer from allergies aggravated by nuts, this is a welcome initiative.

Will other airlines follow suit? What about other products to which some people are allergic? Will they be isolated or banned from being allowed on-board an aircraft?

Would you like to have no orange juice with no peanuts?

To “meet changes in our customers needs”, Business Class replaced by ‘FlexiY’ on LHR-GLA/EDI/DUB/BHD from 27 Jan; end of Blue+ on bmi British Midland, essentially removing the premium class cabin and replacing it with a coach cabin service known as Flexible Economy, where “you’ve never had it so good.”

In addition, the days of Blue+ elite status membership are numbered, and there reportedly will be no more free food for those with elite status in the economy cabin.

As a response, many FlyerTalk members posting in the bmi Diamond Club forum are in an uproar, as some sense the death knell of bmi as they know it, while others intend to “burn through” their bmi Diamond Club miles as quickly as possible.

The Emptiest Flight was recently discussed here at The Gate. However, Do you feel strange when you’re the only person in a lounge?

Imagine having a lounge all to yourself having all of the personnel working in the lounge available to serve you at your whim. There are no mobile telephone conversations to interrupt you and no lines on which to wait. You can sit anywhere you want, and there is ample room to store your belongings.

Not surprisingly, there are a number of FlyerTalk members who would be just fine with this scenario, although one of them felt less than comfortable having the lounge bartender staring at him or her…

Unfortunately, the first word in the title is not a typographical error, as FlyerTalk member hockeystl recounts “Why I’m now a firm believer in DL leather vs NW cloth.”

We do not want to leak the details of the story to you, but be forewarned: the “brownies” discussed in this FlyerTalk thread are not the edible kind.

Reading this thread will leave you with one question: are you a man — or woman — of the cloth or of the leather? If you still choose “of the cloth,” perhaps the first action to be taken is that you start praying you do not sit in a cloth seat that has — er…how should we put this — earned its share of “brownie points”…

The Washington Times covered the recent AA $1242 fare for USA to Australia in first class, with reference to the Flyer Talk discussion and the response of AA.

The Brisbane Times mentions Flyer Talk assisted a nervous flyer preparing for his or her flight.

Management Travel reports on traveller concerns about full body scans and refers to Flyer Talk discussions.

The Perrin Post resumes posting the advice given by Flyer Talkers to frequent flyer questions raised by Wendy’s readers.

No, frequent flyer, business traveler, or terrorist? is not a new game show.

Rather, how is a passenger judged by security personnel at an airport checkpoint, and how do security personnel arrive at their conclusion? Is a logical and foolproof method being used, or is it simply random guessing with no basis whatsoever — or perhaps the criteria is somewhere in between?