News notes from around the interweb:

• The bizarre case of an air marshal who rejects nearly all authority of the federal government which employed him.

• Refer new members to Singapore Airlines Krisflyer by February 29 and you’ll get 500 miles for each one who signs up and earns miles by May 31, up to 10,000 miles. The top 3 referrers get an additional 21,000 miles. You need new members to give your Krisflyer number and promo code KFBD21 when registering.

  

• Japan Airlines has put a Boeing 777-300ER on Tokyo – Sydney and first class awards are wide open. American doesn’t allow you to route from the US to Australia via Asia on a single award, so booking this for U.S. customers would mean pricing as two separate awards.

• SkyWest will operate 20 American Airlines Embraer ERJ-175 regional jets beginning late 2020. The deal appears to take the capital costs of these planes off of American’s books.

• Auction of the Hilton timeshare business could bring $5 billion, but put use of the Hilton name in the hands of a competitor

• Explanations for why airlines still use dot matrix printers at airports

• Airbus A350 engine shutdown incidents appear to have been caused by drinks spilled in the cockpit