News and notes from around the interweb:

• American updates meals on South America routes and Australia/New Zealand routes in business class.

  The Australia / New Zealand update is tagged as “Oceania routes: Culinary journeys down under” but includes just “Sweet chile sea bass” and “Kona-crusted beef filet.” I genuinely thought I was missing something with the beef here. I asked ChatGPT for help:

  “Kona-crusted” almost certainly refers to Kona, Hawaii, not anything Australian. Kona coffee is a common ingredient in U.S. airline and hotel catering menus, where “Kona crusted beef” usually means a filet rubbed with ground Kona coffee beans (sometimes mixed with brown sugar or spices) before searing. It’s meant to suggest a premium, island-inspired flavor.

  There isn’t an Australian or “Down Under” association with Kona. If American Airlines is presenting it as a “Down Under flavor,” that’s just sloppy branding or menu copywriting. They may have intended to gesture vaguely toward “Pacific” or “island” influences and lumped that in with Australia, but geographically and culturally it doesn’t line up.

  Indeed, American’s release admits it’s merely “a nod to island flavors” and not, in fact, Australian. On my last two sets of Australia roundtrips in Flagship first class there weren’t even any Australian wines. Sad. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.

  

• The Capital One lounge at New York JFK has re-opened after a small back of the house fire last week.

  

• Cathay Nagoya – Hong Kong passenger arrested for pskirt photos

• 20% off most Singapore Airlines awards in economy and premium economy booked by September 21 for travel November 1 – May 31, 2026 (no changes permitted, and a handful of destinations excluded).

  

• I’m looking forward to seeing the new JetBlue lounge at JFK, which the airline says is on schedule… but also the new one in Boston:

  

  I actually didn’t realize that the coming Centurion lounge in Boston is going to be part of the same core project.

  

• Avela was running out of money. They reported raising more but I thought it was odd they did not say how much. What they said is it was ‘the most since their series A’. That suggests a range of $42 – $125 million, though, I think:
  • Series A (January 2020): $125 million
    
  • Series B (January 2022): $42 million

  

• As long as they don’t mess with National too much…

  Enterprise evidently considering combining the loyalty programs of it's brands- Enterprise, National, and Alamo (brands would not change, just a combined loyalty program– which seems like a good idea to me.)
  floating names:
  -JourneyRewards
  -Enterprise Mobility Rewards…

  — JonNYC (@xJonNYC) September 9, 2025