News and notes from around the interweb:
- My toxic trait is believing airlines should deliver the product that they advertise, and that when they don’t they have not earned their fare and the customer should be made whole. Airlines disagree, leaning on their contract of carriage saying that no matter what they tell you that you are buying you’re really just getting transportation between two points. That’s unacceptable.
Currently on @AmericanAir PHL→SJU after paying $1,600+ for First Class. My tray table is marked “INOPERATIVE – DO NOT USE.” Then told if I want a working tray table, sit in the back. What am I supposed to do, eat in my lap? I expect a partial refund. #AmericanAir #FirstClass pic.twitter.com/C65dAjs6xO
— D. Sloan-Kelly, MD (@drsloankelly) July 24, 2026
- Hyatt has added 3 hotels to the list where confirmed suite upgrades aren’t permitted: Park Hyatt Mendoza, Hyatt Regency Anchorage (the former Sheraton) and Mar Monte Hotel in Santa Barbara.
- Village on Lake Como starts fining tourists for walking around in swimwear
- Lithium ion battery fires are rare, but (1) with the sheer volume of people flying each day, long tail events happen regularly, and (2) they happen more often in China because of low quality power devices.
China Eastern flight, Lanzhou to Guiyang this morning. Plane had already landed and was taxiing when someone in front starts screaming “Fire!” and running. People look up… overhead bin is on fire.. Crew and passengers trying to deal with it, then the fire trucks show up on the… pic.twitter.com/4NZ191EaZs
— Fahad Naim (@Fahadnaimb) July 24, 2026
- Austin airport United Club closed for mold remediation
- United will fly Denver to Turks & Caicos
“My toxic trait is believing airlines should deliver the product that they advertise”… No, Gary, that’s not ‘toxic,’ at all; rather, it’s rational, sensible, fair, and I’ll go so far as to join you to the ‘ends of the Earth’ defending that ‘hot-take,’ good sir. Also, please, ‘Clean. (and Fix.) Your. Planes.’
Seriously, why does anyone still fly American Airlines? My “Contract of self loading human freight” says I won’t fly with Airlines who can’t deliver what I paid for. Which includes a functioning tray and not sitting in a lower class of service.
As for One World it used to be a real competitor to Star it’s sad to see what happened with American and British Airways in particular.
Fortunately there are other airlines. Especially internationally to and from the US.
Aside from the financial aspect of the situation, what should have been done? The only solution is to take the plane out of service until maintenance personnel and parts are available to fix the tray table. That would have certainly delayed the flight. I’m sure most of the other passengers would have not been in favor of this.
Most items like this are fixed overnight when the planes have more ground time.
I mean, the complainant will probably get miles or a partial refund for their tray table—I rarely defend AA online but INOP components happen and it’s not like the FA can fix it in-flight. Non story
@MattB – Look at that sticker. Do you honestly believe that was applied in the hours this plane flew the same day as this flight?
AA systemically underinvests in product and service. This is just another example of that underinvestment. They could have fixed that seat days, maybe even weeks or months ago, and these underinvestment problems have been documented for years. This is a choice the airline is making.
Did you miss that forest because you were focused on a particular tree?
I’ve had an operable tray table in first and just dealt with balancing the tray in my lap. Not optimal but it works. An airline is not going to take an a/c out of service or force a delay to fix a tray table. Any airline.
The other option is asked to be rebooked albeit with an upgrade that might not mean a first class seat. Why can’t people just learn how to deal with minor issues?
@George Nathan Romey — That’s a cop-out, and yet another sad, pathetic attempt at sane-washing by you for the benefit of a major corporation that is not keeping its promises. Please, I hope you get paid to shill for these bozos, because if you do this for free, you may be even more of a ‘cuck’ than Tim. You should know that as much as management would love to run these aircraft 24/7, they do have down-time, and maintenance, tech ops, etc., can fix them. It’s a financial decision not to. Simply put, C-Suite is being cheap, while they focus on their $10s of millions in compensation.
While I whole heartily think there should be compensation, I doubt the passenger was specifically told they would have to “sit in the back”. Obviously no other first class seats to move to and maybe no economy seats near first class or main cabin extra either and no, I wasn’t there, but people tend to sensationalize actual events and some folks who operate travel sites do as well with their headlines. That being said, if it were me, I’d certainly want what I paid for or at least get some of my money back.
It would probably fail, but I’d like to see someone sue over failing to provide advertised amenities…and propose, as a remedy in lieu of damages, a bar on the airline advertising any amenity they’re not willing to guarantee.
It would at least be funny to see the response to that.
“What am I supposed to do, eat in my lap?”
That’s what 737 pilots do!
Ah, the joys of the A320 series and a civilized tray table…
GOOD LUCK TRYING TO GET A REFUND FROM AAL. IF YOU TAKE THEM TO SMALL CLAIMS COURT, THEY WILL ARGUE THAT WHAT YOU PAID FOR WAS BASIC TRANSPORTATION AND THAT IS PRECISELY WHAT YOU GOT. FLEW AER LINGUS DUB CHI PHX PSP RECENTLY PAID FOR BUSINESS CLASS YET REFUSED ENTRY TO ADMIRALS CLUB IN PHOENIX. TOLD THAT “AER LINGUS” IS NOT A ONE WORLD CARRIER BUT RIGHT ON THEIR WEB SITE IT STATES THAT AER LINGUS TRAVELERS IN A PREMIUM CABIN OR SAPPHIRE STATUS GET ACCESS TO THE LOUNGE. I FIRST FLEW THEM IN 1977 — THEY WERE A SHIT COMPANY THEN AND NOTHING HAS CHANGED.
@Derek McGillicuddy — THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.
If all the customer is paying for under the Contract of Carriage is transportation from Point A to Point B, then the customer should be allowed to sit in any empty first class seat even if they have only paid for a coach ticket. After all, first class seats and coach seats on the same flight both take you from Point A to Point B.
@Joshua K. — No, the contract of carriage has more to it than just Point A to Point B, and even the minimal regulations in the US protect passengers more than just that. Cabin of service is a real distinction. Stop carrying water for these airlines who screw over passengers.
Besides, it’s an adhesion contract; no negotiation, take-it-or-leave-it, so let’s not pretend it’s much more than ‘terms of service,’ such as for visiting this site, which no one reads, and certain aspects are more or less challenging to enforce when things go wrong. As any decent lawyer will say, usually, ‘it depends.’
@1990:
My read is that Joshua K. is pointing out the absurdity of American’s position – that if all they are guaranteeing is A-to-B, it becomes hard for them to defend imposing seat assignments (absent e.g. weight and balance issues).
Obviously, AA would resist such an interpretation…
Follow up to the above – if we ignore F/J, the question of this on an all-Y flight is more serious to ponder.
Exact same situation happened to me on AA. And I did eat meal on my lap. I received 7,500 miles as a “customer service bonus.” Three rounds of emails to even get THAT.
So @1990 EVERYONE, including those peasants back in coach should have the flight delayed while maintenance comes onboard and takes 30-60 minutes to fix a tray table. Yep, despite your endless virtue signaling you are that person.
Flew Virgin Business Class. Tray didn’t work. Spent 20 years military so not a issue. Attendants so thankful that I was not prissy about it got to pick some items out of their catalog. 2 bottles of cologne and a nice bottle of wine for my troubles. None of that is required. I’ve slept and eaten in the dirt, sitting on vehicles, standing you name it. Was easy.
@1990: Gray interpreted my comment correctly. I was satirizing the airlines’ view that passengers are not guaranteed anything except transportation between the two points.