A Russian man, named Mikhail Galin, had 400k miles wiped off after Aeroflot found out that he smuggled his overweight pet cat (Viktor) on his flight from Moscow to Vladivostok.
After his first flight sector from Riga to Moscow, an airline employee discovered that Viktor was 2kg over the cabin limit of 8kg. Although he tried to explain that Viktor was too sick to be checked into the cargo hold, the employees still insisted that Victor has to be checked as a luggage.
Unwilling to give in, Mikhail returned to the airport on the third day with Viktor and a new companion, Phoebe. Phobe is a “cat double” which only weighed 7kg.
As you may have guessed it by now, Mikhail successfully checked in together with Phobe and was later returned to the owner.
Here is a picture of Mikhail short-lived happiness on-board on his second flight sector with Fat Cat Viktor.
Following the social media post, Aeroflot launched an investigation and removed Mikhail from the frequent flyer program. All 400k miles were forfeited.
Cheeky as always, Mikhail made another post to address his penalties with a good sense of humour.
“When his weight still met the requirements of the air carrier…”
H/T: The Guardian
Sounds to me the Russian guy lost his 400k miles because he bragged in social media what he had done to Aeroflot. Had he just kept this whole ‘trick’ to himself, he could have kept those miles and redeemed them.