News and notes from around the interweb:

• Delta’s award price display has become even less transparent

• With TSA wait times stretching out of control, Atlanta’s airport is threatening to privatize security. (HT: Six alert readers!).

  Wait times during peak periods often exceed 35 minutes. Hartsfield-Jackson general manager Miguel Southwell wrote to the TSA that wait times were as long as 52 minutes last Friday morning, for example.

  Sounds bad but not nearly as bad as Denver. And the federal government has a history of blocking airport attempts to outsource security functions despite a legal right to do so in any case.

• United may retire all 22 of its Boeing 747s by 2018. The aircraft type will only be based out of San Francisco by February 2017.

• Virgin Atlantic is increasing the miles required for an upgrade

  PLEASE NOTE FROM 01 MARCH 2016, THE MILEAGE LEVELS FOR UPGRADE REWARDS WILL INCREASE BY THE FOLLOWING AMOUNTS

  Economy to Premium – increase of 5,000 miles per sector

  Premium to Upper – increase of 10,000 miles per sector

  Economy to Upper – increase of 15,000 miles per sector

  You can upgrade when purchasing a full adult fare in the following booking classes: W, S, H, Y, B, R, L, U, M, E, Q and X.

• What do airlines do with dead passengers? (HT: mogon)

• “Why Flight Attendants Walk Airplane Aisles With Bug Spray”