Airline Denies It—But Staff Accused of Stealing Aircraft Parts and Selling Them Back [Roundup]

News and notes from around the interweb:

• Kenya Airways employees stealing aircraft parts and selling them back to the carrier and the airline denies it but that we’re even credibly having this conversation is a bad sign about them.

  A newspaper in Kenya has accused Kenya Airways of having an issue with corruption and criminality in its corporate culture. Most importantly, they cite that whistleblowers claim the airline would lose aircraft parts due to a massive fraud in the maintenance department, where employees steal parts that are then funneled through a front company and resold to the airline for massive profits

• I went on the Loyalty Leaders podcast talking about the goals and mistakes in basic economy and about the return of rewards-earning debit cards.

• Nonrevs wanting onto the inaugural:

  Likely a world record for number of standby passengers on a flight (AS180 SEA-FCO 28 Apr 2026)
  byu/youyouxue inAlaskaAirlines

• You checked more bags than 95% of SkyMiles members named Wayne

• You can now reserve a hotel room on the moon for $250,000 I’m waiting until I can use my FHR or Chase Edit credit there.

• Flyer “stressed” over passenger’s 9/11 conspiracy theory wifi signal name on United flight: JetFuelCantMeltSteelBeams. Here’s a hint. The FBI doesn’t actually broadcast “FBI surveillance van” as its network name. And sunni Islamic jihadists don’t call their network “Al Qaeda Sleeper Cell.” So when you see those, they are jokes.

• “Now children, watch how I make free checked bags and seat selection disappear.”

  This @SouthwestAir employee is doing magic tricks as we’re waiting to board in Denver and the kids love it. Shout out to Ronnie G! pic.twitter.com/qQU228AlYn

  — Hannah (@hannahbrad) January 15, 2026

• Emirates honors its President Sir Tim Clark.