Apparently someone at British Airways doesn’t know where to draw the line with pranks. Or someone’s just really angry. Either way, an employee for British Airways decided, for whatever reason, that it would be funny to put a picture featuring a boarding pass assigned to Osama Bin Laden in an internal company-run magazine. The article it accompanied covered the airline’s new service allowing travelers to download boarding passes to their iphones instead of printing them out, ABC News reports.
Not only has British Airways given a boarding pass to the world’s most infamous terrorist leader, they ‘ve also apparently done it before. He has a frequent flyer number, after all, and you have to be a preferred customer to get a prime first class seat. Let’s all agree not to have any flights depart from any gate A10 at any airport on October 26. Just in case the bar code’s legit and Osama gets any crazy ideas.
Seriously, though, this joke is in pretty poor taste, and there’s a good chance someone will be fired over it. Airline spokesperson Michele Kropf took the most cautious approach possible in her comment to ABC News: “A mistake has been made in this internal publication and we are working to find out how this occurred.”
Also according to the ABC report, British Airways has been in labor disputes with unions, and there is suspicion that it was disgruntlement about this particular issue that spawned the prank.
(Via ABC News via Gadling vie Gizmodo)
Published: Jun 3, 2010 11:28 am