A 67-year-old American woman on her dream holiday in Australia claims to have literally been deafened by the scream of a three-year-old boy sitting across the aisle from her aboard a Qantas aircraft in Alice Springs whose destination was Darwin.

The woman and Qantas are attempting to resolve the issue in court more than a year after the incident allegedly occurred, in which the woman alleges permanent damage to her hearing which caused drastic changes to her life, including not being able to conduct business anymore.

FlyerTalk members discuss whether or not the woman has a case. Is Qantas responsible legally or financially?

When FlyerTalk member dollerman73 was awarded an upgrade to a seat in the premium class cabin, he did something that led to a F seat giveaway!

He felt sorry for a coach-class seatmate who was still putting his stuff in the overhead bins when he had heard the flight attendant offer the upgrade to dollerman73 and allegedly complained loudly about the terrible day he had had, and how he felt he deserved the seat in the premium class cabin instead.

Fighting the urge to not reward what dollerman73 rightfully felt was bad behavior, he offered the upgrade anyway to the upset man, who immediately bolted for the premium class seat originally awarded to dollerman73. without any expression of appreciation whatsoever — not even a “thank you.”

As a result of this incident, dollerman73 may never again offer a fellow passenger a premium-class seat in which he secured.

What would you do, and how would you have handled this situation?

Before you answer this question, consider the completely opposite results that FlyerTalk member CJKatl experienced and related when giving up a premium-class seat to a man — first using a wheelchair and then a cane — and being appreciated and rewarded for that good deed…

There are some rather Obscure nonstop city pairs – past and present posted by FlyerTalk members, some of which may make sense, but others which have everyone scratching their heads in bewilderment.

Here are some examples of strange nonstop city pairs, according to content posted by FlyerTalk members:

• Amman – Addis Abbaba
• Stord – Gdansk
• Tehran – Caracas
• Comox – Puerto Vallarta
• Easter Island – Papeete
• Riga – Dushanbe
• Grand Rapids – Myrtle Beach
• Ulan Bator – Berlin

Useless bonus points are awarded to those who can guess which of the above nonstop routes are now defunct and which ones still exist. Even more useless bonus points are awarded to those who can explain why those airline routes even came into existence in the first place…

Thankfully, no — one can still get chocolates with turn-down service at Marriott hotel properties, and other FlyerTalk members confirmed this after FlyerTalk member WillTravel4Food — a rather appropriate FlyerTalk name for this topic — asked about The End of Pillow Chocolates?

While it can be hit or miss regarding whether one even still receives turn-down service at least at some Marriott hotel properties, there are reports that in at least two Marriott hotel properties in one specific city, a full chocolate bar is given to guests, while in another city one can receive a chocolate chip cookie.

That truly is sweet…

Have you ever flown from Portland to Portland, as in Maine to Oregon? How about flights between:

• Oakland and Auckland
• Ontario to Ontario, as in Canada to California
• London to London, as in Ontario to the United Kingdom
• Birmingham to Birmingham, as in Alabama to the United Kingdom
• Manchester to Manchester, as in New Hampshire to the United Kingdom
• Sydney to Sydney, as in Nova Scotia to Australia
• Melbourne to Melbourne, as in Florida to Australia
• Paris to Paris, as in Texas to France
• Charleston to Charleston, as in South Carolina to West Virginia

There are many more city pairs with similar names posted by FlyerTalk members regarding Flights between similarly named airports which have the potential to cause confusion — and some of them already have…

Imagine not having enough cash to pay for a gratuity which a fellow dining partner who paid the bill failed to leave to the waitperson, so a cup of coffee had to be purchased and charged to a credit card with a large tip to atone for that oversight.

Have you ever seen suitcases take flight all by themselves because of an irate taxi cab driver stiffed out of a tip who served as their launch pad?

A waitperson complains that a 10% gratuity is not sufficient enough after delivering what was perceived by the patrons to be poor service.

Regarding Tipping-Who has been chased down outside a restaurant?

We are willing to bet the ones who leave either no tip or a gratuity so incredibly small — think one penny or so — for their perception of poor service probably would be the most likely people to raise their hands in response to that question.

FlyerTalk members express their sympathies and condolences for flight attendants who are employed by airlines whose flight attendants wear the Most unflattering FA uniforms.

Which airlines do you think have the worst flight attendant uniforms, and why? Which airlines did FlyerTalk members select as the ones with the worst flight attendant uniforms, and why?

We at The Gate are uncertain at this time the details of what appears to be a pending lawsuit of Ran Decisions v. Internet Brands, but sbrower, one of the original members of FlyerTalk, apparently has a copy of the complaint, an interesting new legal case filed today in the United States District Court in California in which Internet Brands allegedly has not paid what it owes for its purchase of FlyerTalk in 2007 and includes some allegations that Internet Brands has failed to properly support FlyerTalk, leading to a significant increase in technical complaints and user complaints and specifically cites the failure to properly fix the Search feature.

Ran Decisions is the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based parent company of Frequent Flyer Services, owner of such brands as InsideFlyer magazine, WebFlyer, Frequent Flyer Travel Services and AwardPlanner. FlyerTalk member and founder Randy Petersen is the president and chief executive officer.

Internet Brands is an El Segundo, California-based company which, amongst its other Internet web site brands of which it owns greater than 100, owns FlyerTalk. Robert N. Brisco is the chief executive officer.

If you found yourself Vomiting in a low fare airline, would you be charged a fee for an airsick bag?

FlyerTalk member daniel-andersson thought about throwing up that question to fellow FlyerTalk members, as Ryanair allegedly removed the brochure holder and vomit bags from their aircraft.

To regurgitate the question, if one experiences reverse peristalsis on-board a Ryanair aircraft, is one forced to pay a fee for the airsick bag — or, perhaps, for the full cost of cleaning up the area if the availability of the airsick bag becomes too late to be useful?

FlyerTalk member blueheronNC finds it Unacceptable – AA charges $150 to change last name on ticket after marriage.

She was on the telephone with an American Airlines agent when trying to change her last name on a ticket after a recent marriage, even though she possesses valid identification in both her former last name and current last name. The part that bothered her more than the fee was that she was not told until after the agent had changed her last name on the ticket that she was going to be charged a $150.00 fee for changing her name.

She eventually managed to get American Airlines to change her name back on the ticket so that she would not be charged the $150.00 fee after all.

By the way, the $150.00 fee was a general ticketing change fee — as in changing the ticket itself — not in changing one’s name specifically. This left FlyerTalk members wondering why she called to have her name changed on the airline ticket in the first place instead of just using her valid identification with her maiden name and avoiding the problem and the change fee altogether…