hopping to another data center and back seems to let you get into the character selection screen sometimes
That's just luck of the draw. Not a mystical rabbits foot. You shouldn't propagate those kinds of myths as fixes. It's as bad as "we sold a winning lotto ticket, so why don't you try buying one here".

I tried logging in like 20 times, and got in twice (left the first time because of horrible lag once in.... that might be due to Comcast and not SE). Can get into Aether as of right now with enough persistence (and a little bit of luck) though.