Don't miss out! Join the thousands of people who subscribe to our once-daily email or our free miles and points Facebook group with all the best travel news. Points With a Crew has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Points With a Crew and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.
In yet another incident, a Chinese passenger was detained after tossing coins the aircraft operating China Southern flight 8427 from Nanning to Bangkok. She is reportedly a first-time flier and the coin-toss ritual was for good luck, which has been the same story in each of these incidents. The incident was captured on CCTV.
After a delay of 78 minutes, during which all the coins were all found and removed, the flight finally took off for Bangkok.
Toss coins in fountains, not flying machines
This is not the first coin-toss incident. There have been at least six this year. The “tradition” started with the first incident in 2017 when an elderly woman tossed a handful of coins at a China Southern aircraft in Shanghai. Chinese Airlines Lucky Air has had three flights delayed or canceled for coin toss incidents in the past couple years. I guess having lucky in the name isn’t enough for some folks.
You don’t really need “good luck” when flying. I get that there are nervous (and superstitious) fliers. But traveling by commercial jet remains one of the safest modes of travel, the recent high-profile incidents notwithstanding.
China is pretty serious about punishing this behavior, and multiple travelers have been detained by police, sometimes for upwards of a week. One man was sued by Shenzen Airlines after he tossed coins into an aircraft, to the tune of 70,000 yuan (~$10,000). The economic loss to the airline due to the aircraft being delayed is definitely real.
Don’t toss coins at planes. Save them for the Trevi Fountain next time you are in Rome.
Points With a Crew has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Points With a Crew and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
Recent Comments