Shock to the System

Shock to the System
Note - I added this post after already posting Chaitee Takes Stock

All this time I've been railing at the system that wouldn't let Rakta have a mount and I could have fixed it - or at least had the right information on what I could do - if I'd only taken a longer look at the Heirloom Hoarder achievement. This achievement grants the entire account to use the Chauffered Chopper that comes with the achievement, and can be ridden at level 1. Ground mount only, but still a mount. How hard is it to get the achievement? This is where I screwed up. Had I bothered to look earlier, I would have found out that all that's required is to have at least 35 heirlooms. When I checked, the account showed 32 heirlooms. It took five minutes and 1500 gold to reach the achievement. Of course, by that time Rakta had walked her shoes off and said F it and leveled to 20 so she could have her own ride. Lesson learned.

Just to be thorough, here is the official information from the GM:

Under level 20, the only mount available is the Chauffeured Chopper
Level 20, you can train to ride 60% speed increase mounts, but only on the ground.
Level 40, you can train to ride 100% speed increase mounts, but only on the ground.
Level 60, you can train to ride 150% speed increase mounts that fly in Outland.  You can also get the Flight Master's License to allow you to fly in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms.
Level 68 , you can learn Cold Weather Flying to fly in Northrend.
Level 70, you can train to ride 280% speed increase mounts that fly.
Level 80, you can train to ride 310% speed increase mounts that fly.
Level 90, you can learn Wisdom of the Four Winds to fly in Pandaria.

There are 2-seater mounts available, that allow a higher-level player to carry a lower-level player, which may be where you see lower level players flying, but that's not the lower level players flying themselves, they're being carried by another player.  Otherwise, yes, characters that are under the levels listed above that are flying or riding on mounts they shouldn't be able to, are exploiting something in the game, or otherwise hacking.