News and notes from around the interweb:
- Stop it already.
@AmericanAir
Do betterForced to check bags when all the overheads are empty.
Terrible customer service. pic.twitter.com/RPF0ZF7kkR
— Brun⭕ (@cbruno33) September 24, 2025
- First-time Rakuten shopping portal users get $50 (or 5,000 Amex points) for spending $50 at any of its merchants. The easy, quick win before this offer ends September 30th is just to go to GiftCards.com through the portal and buy a $50 gift card for Uber, DoorDash, Southwest Airlines or Delta.
I prefer Membership Rewards points – link an eligible Amex card and set Rakuten to pay out in points. But this is essentially a ‘free’ $50.
- Friends Make Major Mistake While Booking Their Airbnb, Then Have to Walk Across Bosnian Border with Suitcases
@abbypphotos We did in fact check in and check out of the Airbnb within one hour…. #justagirl #travel ♬ hate it or love it – favsoundds - Do you want to be the new Director of AAdvantage Strategy?
- United’s Globe Club and Lounge at Capital One Arena
- Troubling.
Someone on my flight is wearing these
byu/New-Account-0001 inwhatisit - The $3 billion-plus LAX Automated People Mover hasn’t made progress in a year. The project was approved in 2018, and has been delayed again to June 2026. Train cars have been arriving for more than three years and are all on-site.
A passenger was forced to gate check their bag while there was still bin space? This is news? This happens a thousand times a day, maybe more?
Hearing about carry-ons being force-checked at the gate, even when overheads appear to be available, is getting very old now……unless someone has a new and useful angle on it.
@David P, @Michael Harrison — This is Gary’s bread and butter. It’s practically a VFTW meme at this point. Embrace it!
@Gary – I know you probably love your current job, but can you please apply for the AA job? You could Make American Great Again…
@Doug — Oof. That ‘n’ in ‘American’ is doing a lot of work there. Does it come with a hat, too?
It is good to keep harping on the empty overhead bin frustration in hopes that airlines will allow time for carryon bags in the boarding process.
The LAX story should have had an inquiry to the Mayor’s office. The Mayor’s office should be the agency getting the groups involved to move forward. Unfortunately the contractor is acting like most contractors, stalling instead of completing the job and usually it is about requesting a lot more money than the signed contract called for.
California infrastructure projects are always just an opportunity for endless graft and lawsuits. Look at high speed rail. No track laid after 15 years and 10s of billions wasted. Meanwhile, China built a nationwide high speed rail network in less than 5 years. This is how Rome falls, from within with self inflicted wounds.
Wait, two whole overhead bins were empty in some portion of the cabin in one of the classes of service at some point?!? Le Gasp!
As far as the feet on the bulkhead, I figure if the person is wearing leg shackles then they probably don’t care much about social proprieties.
@Tizzette gets it. Sunlight is the best disinfectant (other than bleach…). We sometimes mock Gary for his repetitiveness, but the ‘squeaky wheel gets oiled.’ So, keep it up, Gary. You, alone, can fix this!
@Mantis — Glad you’re alright. Was saying in another post how that recent typhoon that went through southern China looked pretty gnarly, especially for Hong Kong. Saw some video of the storm surge crashing through the Fullerton hotel.
As to high speed rail, yes, it is impressive what China, Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, Italy, and the Swiss have done with their networks. As I live in the NE corridor of the USA, the best we got is the Acela, which isn’t bad when it gets up to like 110 mph, but that’s nothing compared to a Shinkansen. Otherwise, believe it or not, Florida of all places has done the most recent addition of new rail services with the Brightline, a private company. California has basically failed at its project. Seattle will probably get additional light rail by 2040. Yeah, not as good as it should be. We (in the USA) are indeed doubling down on oil and gas and personal automobiles. Enjoy the collective over there; we’ll be ‘rugged individualism’-ing ourselves to Balkanization if we don’t get our act together soon enough. Then again, #47 is adopting the worst parts of the CCP with censorship and going after perceived enemies like Xi did when he rose to power. I guess we’re all human after all. Hope the mainland can get pollution under control (was ‘not great’ last time I was there); if any country can get that done, it’s probably the one that can ‘force it’ to be done, for better and for worse. Y’all do have more windmills, solar panels, etc. than anywhere else, so, congrats, winning the ‘green’ economy. Our loss, for sure. But don’t count us out. Rome still has delicious pasta. And the British museum still has all the antiquities.
Boo hoo, Bruno. Like you’re the only person this ever happened to. Rookie.