News and notes from around the interweb:

• Virgin America is offering double points and double elite status credit through November 19. Registration required. (Incidentally this isn’t the first time they’ve asked members to ‘feel the earn’.)

  

• United’s new lounge food for fall (“Let’s hope that United is not taking a step back with its latest seasonal menu, slowly lurching back to the dark days of cheese cubes and carrot sticks.”)

• Virgin America is also selling discounts on Living Social (Living Social still exists?). Book by October 19 for travel October 22 through February 29 with several blackout dates including all Sundays.

  

• What’s really going on in airline pricing and capacity?

• Interesting piece arguing that Silvercar isn’t just better, it’s also cheaper than the major rental car companies. That’s been my experience searching midweek airport business rentals. But the major companies often dump weekend leisure rentals super cheap, and of course you can scrounge discounts more easily from them than you can Silvercar at least on an ongoing basis. Still, I continue to love the Silvercar value proposition (no extra fee toll tracking, $5 fee to refill gas at market price, in-car GPS, satellite radio, and wifi, and of course a nicer car).

• The Skurt App (only available for iPhone, and only so far at LAX) rents the excess inventory of rental car companies, waives underage driver fees, and delivers your car to the terminal. (HT: Travel Skills)

• United is offering that it will order 100 new 100-seat planes if its pilots will agree to a 2-year contract extension.