News and notes from around the interweb:
- True story – $9 for a few minutes’ use of an airport luggage trolley is insane.
- There are 3 American Airlines Admirals Clubs at Washington’s National airport. The concourses outside of the historic terminal A’s banjo are now connected inside of security. There’s even a moving walkway out to the E (regional jet) concourse. My two stops at the airport are to the Capital One Landing (restaurant) and to the Admiral’s Club on the E pier which is gorgeous and peaceful. I absolutely skip the other two, which aren’t really better than the packed terminal.
Since we’re stranded over 6 hours at @Reagan_Airport by @AmericanAir, tonite’s entertainment is provided by Mickey… https://t.co/N9xrITHIos pic.twitter.com/U85ZeTnWPx
— Michael Scott (@urimiscott) June 29, 2025
- I’ll never understand the airline mindset, believing they can keep a customer’s money when this is the product that they deliver (“all you are entitled to is transportation from A to B, anything else is extra” – but they market the extra as the reason to buy from them).
Shoutout @AmericanAir for the vomit on our seats! Quite the welcome gift! #AmericanAirlines pic.twitter.com/MXITTJFMNQ
— Josh Fegan (@J_Fegan) June 28, 2025
- Many Delta flyers unable to use the airline’s digital channels during their Atlanta meltdown because of a security breach causing them to lock accounts and not notifying customers that their accounts were locked.
That also means that affected customers couldn’t get boarding passes through their account in the mobile app, and were left to stand in interminably long lines (likely missing those flights that did operate). You can get a boarding pass without being logged in – I do this all the time with Delta because I usually credit to Flying Blue, where I have status – but that’s precisely what Delta should be communicating proactively with customers, explaining to them what to do. Pretty big fail here not to communicate at all.
- Southwest Airlines flight attendant sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison for child porn. He was caught exchanging messages wtih an undercover FBI agent, after the 12 year old girl he’d been contacting told her father about the contacts she received via TikTok.
- American Airlines flight 4725, operated by Republic, experienced a six hour delay on Sunday while they found a new aircraft. Oops.
AAL4725 (BOS) delayed after car drives under the plane
byu/Stevendanvh inaviation - Oman Air has joined oneworld. It remains an Air Canada Aeroplan partner as well.
it’s a good idea. I see people using a cart and abandon it after they used it.
JFK has always charged to use those carts. As far as returning them goes, either charge a deposit or if you are charged for these carts, then you damn well should leave them where ever you want. Let them earn their money.
Cart charging at MIA is nothing new. Whenever the vendor’s contract is up for renewal it becomes a circus of rebidding until the county commissioners’ pockets are comfortably stuffed, more than likely by a close relative.
With the price of carts in USA airports I am sure that the crews replacing them in the vending machines are getting paid enough. At LAX, arriving at the terminal, you have to pay for a cart if you need one but when you arrive at the luggage area after flying in, carts are often freely available at the baggage carousel area. Last time, flying on Asiana, I came across an abandoned cart not far inside the doors. Since it was easier than the alternative, I put it to use only to drop it off before going upstairs to TSA inspection. If there are several in your party and you want to save some money, leave the luggage outside under the watchful eyes of some of your party and go inside to get a free cart or two from where people have to leave them before going through inspection.
Dang I had to reread the post — at first I thought the banjo was now connected airside to Terminal 2 at DCA. Would’ve been huge! Although presumably flying Southwest a lot less moving forward…
For the amount of time luggage carts are used how about like Aldi? Drop a quarter, get back a quarter (metaphorically)
$9 for a luggage cart????? Sounds to me like some airports are getting greedy. I wish Gary had posted which ones they were.
If you don’t want to pay for a cart don’t get one. Doesn’t matter what the airport charges – no one is entitled to things for free or cheap (as much as Gary seems to believe that is the case). No one is putting a gun to your head and making you get a cart.
Gary – you are sounding more and more like the bitter old man sitting on the front porch yelling at kids to get off his lawn. The majority of your posts are now what you perceive to be service failures at a hotel/airline or whining about the fact they are monetizing them instead of giving them away to people traveling on OPM. God you are sad and bitter! Not sure why I continue to read your blog (and waste time posting).
Strong incentive to pack light.
Check this out. When my buddy Rick and I were in high school we made money at LAX shagging SmarteCartes on Saturdays. In the early 1970s, SmarteCarte would pay you a quarter for every SmarteCart you returned to the cart rack. After two or three hours, we would have enough money to take our girlfriends out on Saturday night. A quarter now, adjusted for inflation, is worth $1.985 today so it was a great part-time job.
I remember I was at an airport and you had to pay to take a cart.
So I went in to the airport and grabbed one that was left around.
Security yelled at me 🙂 so I left it and sent my kid in to get a different one 🙂
Fun times!
Where are my “let the free market decide” folks at?!
$9 for a cart that people don’t always have the courtesy to return to a station seems more reasonable than AA’s $24 fee to use in-flight internet on one flight. Talk about a rip-off.
Let the free market determine prices. Of course, this isn’t a free market in a traditional sense, since, I assume, a single supplier has purchased a monopoly from the airport. Given we don’t know the payments from cart company to airport, it’s hard to put $9 into perspective. And, I suspect the single rental gets used many times. But, if you have a ratio of bags to pax that requires you need one, I’m guessing a price 1/3 or aVegas bottled water is a bargain.
@1990 Do you realize that every airport in the United States is government owned and run – as Federal law requires – and that there is no “free market” within our airports were the Soviet system prevails. If we privatized our airports and a private company had a financial interest in making their airport welcoming, you would not see this. In most private airports that come immediately to mind, luggage carts are offered as a free amenity built into landing/usage charges to airlines – but in the USA it’s very easy for airlines to control airport policies through political power or corruption (like United at Newark).
Free carts are par for the course in Asia.
@Mak
Not true. Airport land in the US is generally government-owned, but not all airports are government run – there are some that are partially or entirely privately managed (SJU and BKG are the ones I can immediately think of). Under current laws, a local government can’t directly sell the airport, but can lease the airport to a private operator.
The problem in the US is mostly that capital financing costs make a privately operated airport more expensive to run compared to publicly operated airports – local governments can issue tax-exempt bonds, but companies can’t.
@This comes to mind, @Mak, @Space — I’m just glad to inspire some debate. Of course, I was initially mocking the ‘libertarian’ crowd that often spews that ‘free market’ nonsense. There’s usually some monopolization or at least regulatory capture going on in all aspects of our modern economy. As for the airport trolley, sheesh, if you really need one, maybe you’re packing too much. Carry-on only, for the win!