
Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals - ohjeez
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/02/hacking_airline.html
======
sleepyhead
Can people please stop using "hacking" about every little tweak, tip, or
technique to gain something?

~~~
nly
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.

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corin_
It can be taken too far though. If I go shoplifting am I "hacking the shop"?
If my shower breaks and I pour bottled water over myself to clean am I
"hacking bottled water"?

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duairc
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.

~~~
the_watcher
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)

~~~
duairc
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.

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dmethvin
In any airport I frequent, this would not be worth the money. Some garages
offer free parking for 30 minutes for pick-ups, but by the time you park, go
through security, eat, and return you would owe at least $4. Then there's the
time/gas cost of getting to/from the airport. Even if you used public
transport it could be expensive, it's like $16 round-trip on BART from SFO to
downtown San Francisco.

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rch
It's really not a problem for places with decent public transportation. There
are parts of the world where it makes sense to have a monthly or annual pass.
I've no idea what it is like in the area where this occurred though.

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geoka9
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).

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Gepser
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.

~~~
dsrguru
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.

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

~~~
smnrchrds
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". Didn't even open the bottles to make sure.

Also many people bring back several liters of water from the holy Well of
Zamzam[1] in their flight back from Mecca. The record I've heard of was 40
liters.

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamzam](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamzam)

~~~
CWuestefeld
They follow the American protocols, and then some.

Last time I was there, after handing my bags over I got called to the
inspector's room. They'd x-rayed my bags and seen a cigarette lighter [1]. I
have no idea how they recognized it as such, but they pointed to the area in
my bag where it had been seen, and asked me to open the bag and remove it.

On another flight, we were all waiting in line to check-in, but the agents
hadn't shown up. Somebody gave up on waiting, and just left their bags sitting
in line - this while the recording about unattended bags was playing (yes,
they've got that in China, too). It was funny to watch everyone in the line
studiously ignoring the unattended bag, for fear that they'd shut down the
terminal while calling the bomb squad, and we'd all miss our plane.

[1] I don't smoke, but it's in my first aid kit for sterilizing a needle.

~~~
DrStalker
What about domestic flights? Some domestic airports like Melbourne have the
lounge outside the checkpoints, and even if they are through them domestic
security in Australia is very quick and easy.

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United857
This has already been debunked to be false:
[http://shanghaiist.com/2014/01/29/passenger-with-first-
class...](http://shanghaiist.com/2014/01/29/passenger-with-first-class-ticket-
eating-free-for-a-year-myth.php)

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edwintorok
Another interesting story in the comments of that article:
[https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/02/hacking_airli...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/02/hacking_airline.html#c4187941)

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ableal
In comments:
[https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/02/hacking_airli...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/02/hacking_airline.html#c4187941)

Good story about buying a suit at 6 am: _" Upon exiting customs, I was greeted
(by name) by a number of large men holding submachine guns (rare in UK)."_

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AndyJPartridge
They take it all very seriously!

In January 2004 I took my mum to Disneyland Paris.

Someone had accidentally left their luggage next to the belts below the
customs booths.

The airport was shut down and cleared on that level, whilst a brave man with a
machete hacked carefully at the bag to discover sausages.

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Uberphallus
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.

~~~
brk
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 editing that file to change the "Zone 4"
text/image to "Zone 1", and then getting early boarding.

If you travel with any regularity you soon realize that all these special
checks and verifications are pretty weak. Even when you are in a place that
DOES use the barcode reader to pull the data, it wouldn't be that hard to hack
the barcode. The reader devices appear to be non-networked, so they are just
scanning a code and displaying text. I haven't personally tried it, but that
kind of "encryption", if there is any, is pretty easy to reverse engineer. You
can have multiple data samples (tickets), and you know at least some of the
key info contained within (passenger name, flight info, etc.) and you can
experiment endlessly until you figure it out.

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leoedin
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.

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chime
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.

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aestra
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 seat in front to put it under, and the
overheads on that seat had a bunch of flight attendant stuff in them. Being
the first on the plane wouldn't have enabled me to avoid the "checked
carryon."

~~~
brk
This is by no means how it commonly works. _Some_ planes will "gate check"
your carryon, but most of the time that last-minute checked luggage gets
checked through to your final destination.

And for the other comment above, the plane certainly WILL leave without you.

I travel 60-100K miles per year.

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ValentineC
From the guidelines:

> Please submit the original source. If a blog post reports on something they
> found on another site, submit the latter.

Should this submission be amended to the URL and headline of the original
article? [http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/01/24/Man-uses-
fi...](http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/01/24/Man-uses-firstclass-
ticket-to-get-free-meals-for-almost-a-year/)

~~~
revelation
No, because the comments on Schneiers blog add value that isn't on the
original source. Which is why there are now (two even) comments here that link
to comments on the linked blog post. Schneier also found the comments on HN
helpful, which is why he now links to this HN thread, even though the HN
thread just linked his blog.

(Quite the circle by now)

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mcphilip
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.

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scott_karana
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?

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avn2109
Barring extraordinary circumstances, checking bags while flying is a textbook
case of doing it wrong.

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Falling3
Why is that?

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rtkwe
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.

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Falling3
Except for a few bad days, I generally don't wait long for my checked luggage.
It's sometimes already there by the time I make it to the claim area. Finding
overhead space can be a hassle and I much prefer boarding and unboarding
without dragging a ton of stuff. And carry-on obviously limits the items you
can bring along on a plane.

Your arguments are perfectly valid for some, but this is isn't a case of "this
method is obviously right".

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woobar
Your arguments are perfectly valid until the first time you arrive to your
business meeting w/o your bags.

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p4bl0
Be sure to read the comment left by "askme" on the linked page. It is a
similar story but it actually made me laugh.

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awwstn
Most airline lounges in the U.S. offer free snacks, wine and beer – not meals.

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yawz
Not saying it's the same everywhere but with British Airways you can access a
better lounge if you're First Class (not sure if they have meals - maybe
someone can confirm that).

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Roedou
Both the Business Class and First Class BA lounges at LHR T5 have meals.

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codex
This is not "hacking." This is just scamming.

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aquateen
You could buy a first class ticket and hold on to it for a year, then use the
lounges whenever you actually do travel.

It doesn't look like this is possible in the US though. I don't see an airline
that offers their lounge just for having a first class ticket. Alaska even
requires a ticket for the day you're there.

~~~
DrSbaitso
Most US airlines don't offer lounge access for domestic first class tickets,
but they generally do for international business/first. And sometimes for
"premium" transcontinental routes (like JFK-SFO).

Then again, the food in US airline lounges leaves a lot to be desired. The
free meal would probably just be cheese and crackers and carrot sticks...

~~~
johnmertic
Very true, I can't imagine going thru the effort to do this to get some pre-
packaged cheese and Bud Light.

Probably better to just hang out in a hotel lobby which has the same amenities
and less hassles.

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mathattack
Once upon a time the lounges in the US had unlimited free drinks. (I don't
travel as much now, so I'm not sure any more) It might not be worth the
commute to an airport for a mediocre lunch, but for all you can drink?

The real issue is the time involved though. A few hours is worth more than a
couple dollars saved.

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theuri
It wouldn't be worth getting exposure to that level of radiation on a daily
basis from the security process

