News and notes from around the interweb:

• Bed bugs in Air India business class, I’ve written several times about bed bugs on British Airways so this is more common than you might think.

• 2-for-1 award redemptions from Garuda Indonesia’s GarudaMiles [Citi ThankYou Rewards transfer partner] bookable weekends this month for travel through December 15.

• Estonia’s plan for a ‘digital nomad visa’ live and work in Estonia for a year, and the Schengen area up to 90 days. This is a great way to work legally rather than entering Europe on a tourist visa.. it’s expected to launch next year.

• Take hotel shower caps and use them as shoe covers

• Why some mid-sized cities have difficulty attracting air service This is the case of Bakersfield, California. (HT: Cranky Flier) And more ‘subsidies for me, but not for thee’ American Airlines edition:

  [T]he federal government has awarded Kern County half a million dollars to help support a resumption of passenger flights between Bakersfield and Dallas-Fort Worth.

  If negotiations are successful, the money would be spent on advertising for American Airlines, which in October helped Kern secure the grant funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Small Community Air Service Development Program.

• Speaking of ‘subsidies for me but not for thee’ Delta hates everyone else’s subsidies but loves their own. Their revenue-sharing anti-trust immunized joint venture partner Alitalia may receives subsidies in perpetuity through re-nationalization. Of course if the minority stakeholder in the carrier becomes Lufthansa, it’s United’s partner that will benefit from the subsidies this go around.

• This Hilton elite member keeps getting upgraded prior to check-in in the Asia Pacific region as a Gold.

• London Heathrow’s ‘ghost flights’ with no passengers. Airlines squat on slots, since they’re “use ’em or lose ’em.”