MOSCOW — A Russian man has lost hundreds of thousands of air miles after he smuggled an overweight cat onto a cross-country flight last week.
Russia’s flagship airline, Aeroflot, kicked Mikhail Galin off its frequent flier programme after accounts of the high-stakes operation went viral on Russian social media.
In a trick reminiscent of a bank heist or spy thriller, Galin used a body-double cat to work around Aeroflot’s 8 kilogram (about 18 pound) limit for animals transported in the plane’s cabin when flying from Moscow to Vladivostok, on Russia’s Pacific coast.