Sounds like the thief in the article you linked was a ticketed passenger. That could happen on any airline, and assuming you ever sleep or use the toilet, little you could do to stop it.

The take away for me is to keep anything valuable on my person.

I haven't seen it in person, but in the TV series about DXB it happened on a flight, I believe as everyone was sleeping. If I remember, a fellow passenger alerted the person being robbed and it was reported to airport security.

I live in Singapore. Theft from overhead bins is underreported, but quite common occurrence on local regional routes - mainly between Indonesia/Malaysia and Vietnam/Hong Kong/China/Korea. This is due to the fact that a lot of people travel with large amount of cash. There are criminal syndicates operating/specializing on such activities.

I think the article writer is silly calling the theft a scam. There is no deception, it is theft plan and simple. That said, I trust no PAX on a flight (Not even my spouse, she will steal my blanket).

Carrying a lot of cash is just asking for it.

Forget theft on planes. What about straight up muggings?

Is is cultural phenomenon and not limited to developing countries. Average person in Japan/Korea carries several hundred/thousands equivalent of the USD in their pocket/purses/wallets.

It's very easy to use credit cards, even from mobile wallets using NFC terminals at all the stores in HK and Singapore.

So if Asians are using cash, who's using the cards that the merchants bother to get the latest NFC terminals?

Anyways, this is FT so Americans are not only hooked on credit cards but getting rewards for using them.

Guess that must not be a thing outside the US.

It must be a ostentation thing too. Besides jewelry, it's a sign of success to pull out a roll of bills.

How many people go to the bathroom and leave their bags and handbags unattended under the seat in front or in an overhead locker and don't think anything of it. However, in other situations on the ground they wouldn't dare leave their belongings.

Singapore and HK has quite highly developed mile chasers market, which extends to the geric population. Inside Singapore/HK people in general do not carry 100s of thousands $ with them (however I have to mention here that I witnessed three times how 70+ old gentlemen or auntie walked into bank and produced from briefcase/handbag stacks of $1000 bills wrapped into newspaper). It is when you leave Singapore/HK and go to less developed places you need to carry cash.

Secondly, while credit cards/ATMs do offer convenience, consumer protection when there is a fraud is quite limited comparing to US. Couple of examples:

- This happened in Singapore: a guy lost his credit card (or was stolen), here did not release for a week. These who got hands on his card took it outside of Singapore and charged $4000 on it. Bank said that because he did not notify them immediately and 'there is no proof that he did not initiate these charges' (SIC!) he is liable for charges.

- Personal example from last November: my Singapore issued local credit card was hit with >$8000 fraudulent transactions in USD and VND - somebody was purchasing facebook credits. I never used the card in Vietnam or at shady online places. I got notified when several of these charges alerted me via SMS. But not all these charges even got SMS notification - there were 16 total, while I received notification about four. I immediately called the bank - was on my way home to office - and asked to block the card and revert charges. Yet, to have all these charges removed I had to file a police report and present that police report to the bank.

Note that bank's systems did not detect, question or block suspicious transaction like it would happen with Chase or other banks in US. Maximum I got - I was notified about these charges. And why would I who never within last 5 years of using this card used it in Vietnam, or buy anything of FB, would decide suddenly to run 16 charges with >$8000, seems bank's IT's fraud detection department did not even bother to ask...

Certain countries/places in the region are very high risk for credit/ATM related fraud - for example there is a warning here locally to limit usage of plastic for the whole Vietnam and don't use it at Kuta, Bali - on TripAdvisor forms it is regularly reported how cards are skimmed and accounts emptied.

So you get an idea - cultural traditions combined with lack of consumer protection is what makes people carry thousands of $ with them. BTW, if you observe at an US airport boarding of flights to Asia, you will notice that number of passengers are stopped by Border Agents before boarding and asked how much cash do they carry with them to find out undeclared sums.

I'd be highly creeped out if someone took all of their carry ons to the lav mid-flight.

I've heard about this, but have always been generally paranoid so typically lock my rollaboard when it goes up into the overhead. There's usually nothing in it that I'd need during the flight.

I have a small shoulder bag with iPad, phone, passport, credit cards, etc. Usually the wallet/passport are in my pocket during the flight.

There are a few hundred people on the plane, I'd rather not be the easier victim/target.

This.

Had heard that the gangs are now well-established on long-haul routes ex-Asia too, in part because these tend to be overnight flights (when people are sleeping), but also because Mainland travellers carry large amounts of cash out of China (and not always travelling directly).

For me the solution is simply my carry-on have locks, and they are locked. They won't stopped a determined thief with the right equipment but enough of an inconvenience they'll move to my neighbors bag.

On a recent flight my seat mates were a young Chinese couple, looked like rich spoiled crowd. As I always sit bulkhead nothing much can store in seat or in-infront. As we got ready to land they took down their Gucci bag, the boyfriend pulled out probably a few tens of thousands of dollars and his passport to fill out the forms, counted out what looked like a thousand or two to give to his girl friend and then thru it all back in the overhead, dang....

But sorry not sure how a gang th can make that much after paying for tickets and such, but I guess shorter cheaper flights might be interesting, LOL