News and notes from around the interweb:
- MileagePlus members, be afraid. ($$) Veteran of Apple Card (all branding, very little consumer value) and… Delta.
Richard Nunn, a former Comcast executive hired in May 2023 as CEO of the loyalty platform and to launch Kinective Media, is leaving. So is Luc Bondar, the vice president of loyalty, who has run MileagePlus day-to-day for nearly 10 years.
United has made a splashy permanent hire to replace Nunn and Bondar, naming Jarad Fisher as its new vice president for loyalty and president of MileagePlus. Fisher helped build Apple’s credit card from 2015 to 2020, and earlier in his career, he worked in loyalty at Delta.
- I flew American Airlines on four different days in the eight days following their launch of free wifi, and I finally got an aircraft where it had rolled out. The wifi still worked even on a mostly-full New York – Austin flight, so that’s good.
I’m told that customers with annual plans can get pro-rated refunds. Also, if you’re on a monthly plan, you can email subscriptions.wifi -at- americanair.com to cancel. I probably will wait until after my flights next week to do so.
When I logged in I was asked whether I wanted to use my subscription or the free wifi. I’m told the only difference is whether they make you run through ads before getting online (i.e. pay doesn’t get you bandwidth priority).
- I’m ded. American Airlines introduced an AI chatbot ‘destination recommender’. So what happens when you ask it for travel to “Obama’s home country”? I’m 99% sure this is fake. But it’s hilarious:
Wow @AmericanAir that's pretty racist! pic.twitter.com/CpPI2HcZha
— Joshua Tsuji (@JoshTsuji) January 14, 2026
- Clean. Your. Planes.
It’s funny how @united gives you sanitary wipes to clean your seat and monitor but can’t clean the Air filters in their planes for who knows how long. The wipes won’t protect us from coughing all 10h during transatlantic flight.
Have some decency, clean your planes! pic.twitter.com/i64xBm2726
— Miguel Fliman (@MiguelFliman) January 13, 2026
- United Airlines Will Require Preorders For Fresh Economy Meals, Ending Onboard Purchases so if you misconnect and wind up on a new flight, no food for you!
- The woman who told her family she was hired as a flight attendant so she used crew fast track with a fake ID to board in a fake uniform has now been hired as a real flight attendant.
Btw ni org bisa onboard karena beli tiket dikira mungkin extra crew tp pas ditanya ngengngong alias ga bisa jawab, mana idcardnya beda sendiri id 15 sebelum masehi (?), pas landing udh ditunggu avsec pic.twitter.com/DndTievI8v
— Lalalilisasa M (@ndymanoballl) January 7, 2026
Umm, isn’t the bigger story with United is that they’re supposedly hiring Vasu Raja (you know, formerly at American Airlines, NDC/OTA fiasco) as a consultant??
Hold up….Gary just went on a New York to Austin flight? Could this possibly mean…? I seem to enjoy setting myself up for disappointment haha
@1990 – separate post on that coming next 😉
@L737 — My guess is that he was at at the BILT launch, but…LGA C1 Landing preview?? Sorry, Gary, the weather’s been ‘trash’ in NYC (a bit grey yesterday), kinda nice out this morning (clear-ish).
@1990 — Haha you’re probably right. My rationale guess is mid-February but one can dream!
@Gary Leff — I’m ready for the roast! *sizzle*
Some online checking indicates that Khairun Nisya was not hired as a flight attendant but has been offered a free flight attendant course. Search for “Khairun Nisya asiaone fact check”.