A man who got his overweight cat into the passenger cabin of a plane
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
At least under US law, frequent flier miles are property of the airline and the program operates basically free of oversight. They can take them from you at their sole discretion for any reason or no reason, and they can't be sued for it, at least in state court. Only the DOT has meaningful jurisdiction over airlines, for instance look up the last few battles over 14 CFR 399.88(a).
In software this is so common it has its own CWE (https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/367.html)
They let him onboard, once they realized the plane was not suitable for pets in the cargo hold, and he was already included in the ticket.
What is the heaviest inanimate object permitted to be loose (unstrapped, unenclosed) in a plane cabin?
A pet cage with a heavy object inside it is an inanimate object. That it contains a living thing is beside the point from a physics perspective.
British Airways’ policy on hand luggage is any weight is fine, as long as you can lift it into the overhead bins without assistance.
The heaviest Atlas Stone lift is 560lbs, which seems like a reasonable answer to your question.
It looks like Atlas Stones are generally mold-poured concrete, so you'd have to pour concrete into a rectangular shape.
What is the maximum mass (in pounds) of concrete that can be poured into a carryon luggage rectangle compliant with BA policy?
EDIT: 51 pounds, because that's the BA published limit on carryons. So, 16"x12"x3.451" using 133 lbs/ft^2 pre-mixed concrete, best case scenario. Make sure to take the handle's weight into account.
https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/information/baggage-ess...
https://www.calculator.net/concrete-calculator.html?slableng...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savannah_cat#Physical_features...
> The Maine Coon is the largest breed of domestic cat. On average, males weigh from 13 to 18 lb (5.9 to 8.2 kg)
He flies first class, I'm sure he wont miss the frequent flyer miles.
Any of these can be worth the penalty.
Not applicable here though.
Here are a few tricks I tried.
1- Have your laptop on a slim sleeve. If the airline is doing weight checks, remove the laptop and hold it. That's a 2-3Kg gain.
2- Have a few cheap items (like a cheap umbrella) in your carry-on. If the airline tells you are over limit, then start removing these cheap items and throwing them. This shows the guy/girl that you are doing an effort. Tried this a couple times and they let me get on with it.
3- Talk to the guy/girl. Explain you have expensive items and that you can't put these electronics in your check-in luggage (batteries!).
4- Don't go over 12Kg. Try to be in the 9-11Kg range.
Chelo is a common woman name in some parts of the world but "Chelo Smith" was a Stradivarius cello.
After almost eight years there, when we flew back to the US, we paid for my sister-in-law and her husband to fly over and help us, and part of the job was to then fly back with one of our three cats. My wife and I had the other two cats with us.
Seemed to be pretty normal business on Delta, at least at the time.