News and notes from around the interweb:

• Please take this quick survey that I am running along with Expert Flyer.

  As a counter to the average travel survey, we want to know what really engaged travelers think about things like whether air travel gotten better or worse, whether revenue-based mileage programs have affected your earning, and what you value most at an airport.

• Must Starwood Elites Give Up the High Life Under Marriott? Scott Mayerowitz‘s piece for the AP in which add,

  “No Starwood Platinum member has ever said ‘I would rather be a Marriott Platinum,'” says Gary Leff, who writes about points and miles at ViewFromTheWing.com.

• I’m still going to Paris but the Department of Defense has banned military personnel from going anywhere within 50 miles of there. Horse? Barn door. As usual.

• TSA failed to catch man with loaded gun on airplane (HT: Tocqueville) A man came forward after departing Southwest Airlines on a flight from Atlanta with a loaded gun in his bag.
  

• It’s not surprising following a terrorist attack that fear would rule the day. Two ‘suspicious’ passengers were removed from an American Airlines DC-Boston flight on Sunday. Crew reported ‘concerns’. But there turned out to be nothing to be concerned about, and the pair took a later flight. (HT: Brian Sumers)

• Which airlines have the best wine? While Emirates has the flashiest and most expensive cellar, I like usually like Singapore’s choices. Perhaps it’s because they have a pressurized tasting room and can get a better sense of how particular bottles will fare in the air. I also have a soft spot for Qantas, since I tend to like shiraz and chardonnays from the Yarra Valley.

• New York City will spend $10 million to crack down on Airbnb. Does de Blasio buy the ‘broken windows theory of crime after all? ‘Let people rent out their apartment for less than a month at a time and suddenly murder rates could skyrocket!’