News and notes from around the interweb:
- Qatar Airways lost and found returns headphones after four years. It seems to me that if they had them the whole time and just hadn’t processed or returned them that’s a pretty big fail for the airline and there should be some additional gesture here, while some of you will be impressed that they went to this effort. (HT: @PointsToPointB)
In November 2022, I flew to the Qatar World Cup and accidentally left my Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones on the flight. I filed a lost and found report, but communication completely dropped off by January 2023. I gave up, bought a replacement pair, and moved on with my life.
Fast forward nearly 4 years later. I now live in Los Angeles. This past March, Qatar’s airspace was completely closed due to the war. With flights grounded, it seems the airline staff finally had the time to tackle the years-old lost and found backlog. Out of nowhere, I got an email saying they still had them in a Doha storage facility! Because of the airspace lockdown, they couldn’t fly them out immediately, but promised to put them on the earliest flight possible to LAX once things reopened.
This week, right in the middle of the 2026 World Cup, I got a call from the Qatar Airways team live at LAX. My headphones had landed. I went to the Tom Bradley International Terminal check-in counter, and they handed them right over. The battery was completely dead, but after a quick charge, they powered up and work flawlessly.
- Stolen valor. People will buy and sell anything. Silver medallion tags..?
- What part of ‘you must use headphones when listening to music’ didn’t they understand?
Flower of Scotland over the Atlantic. Credit to the @AmericanAir crew who joined in the fun. 🏴🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/puXioEPyQg
— Steve Barron (@steve_hnm) June 18, 2026
- Someone needs to solve this. American’s Senior Vice President Heather Garboden flags, one point of net promoter score improvement yields $50 million to $100 million in revenue.
Genius-level operations management from @AmericanAir … forcing me to gate-check my bag … and as I board with Group 5?
Literally two full rows of bin space.
I swear, some folks just want the tiniest bit of power just so they can abuse it. God forbid a passenger has a tight… pic.twitter.com/qKBVXZAlir
— John A. Doe (@DrJohnADoe) June 18, 2026
- This is individually rationale but morally appalling – requesting a wheelchair you don’t need takes resources away from the people who do need them. It’s not harmless!
The hidden benefit to Southwest Airlines from assigned seating was reducing wheelchair expense, which was far higher for them than any other U.S. airline.
Wheelchair Shortcut: The NRI Hack at Airports ✈️ & Student Driver Sticker Scam 🚘 | Kumar Exclusivehttps://t.co/2LcHQAV1bq
Clarification on Wheelchair & Student Driver Sticker Scam | Kumar Exclusivehttps://t.co/CWQVCE42U4
"Not primarily disabled—many exploit free airport… pic.twitter.com/p2F7Ikbt17
— KumarXclusive (@KumarXclusive) November 16, 2025
- British Airways ‘brunchgate’ executive is the new Chief Customer Offier at Qatar Airways
- Air Serbia, which used to be controlled by Etihad, has exited Etihad Guest and launched their own program.
- Qantas isn’t going to have a first class lounge at London Heathrow after all. The business class lounge is very good and will increase capacity by reducing the size of the bar and staircase.
There will be a dedicated first class dining area inside the lounge (presumably then business class will lose its own a la carte dining).
Are you going to evaluate the Air Serbia program for us?
@jack the ladd — Ah, yes, the finest the former Yugoslavia has to offer…