News and notes from around the interweb:

• South African Airways could default on its debt which is seen, more or less, as an obligation of the South African government. The Star Alliance airline is such a basket case that even Etihad wouldn’t buy in back when they were doing such things.

• Hilton’s CEO plans to introduce a new ‘hostel on steroids’ to compete with Airbnb. The cynical might call that “Hilton.”

• The American Express Centurion Lounge in Hong Kong will open next month. I currently have a pretty long layover in Hong Kong scheduled for a few days into November, I had planned to chill at the first class section of The Pier but will have to do some lounge hopping.

  
  American Express Centurion Lounge Dallas Entry

• We’re starting a [trade] war with Canada!

  The department said it imposed a steep 219.63 percent countervailing duty on Bombardier’s new commercial jets after it made a preliminary finding of subsidization. Boeing has complained the 110-to-130 seat aircraft were dumped below cost in the U.S. market last year while benefiting from unfair subsidies.

  An April 2016 order for 75 CSeries jets from Delta Air Lines stemmed from the same harmful sales practices European rival Airbus SE employed to win business in the 1990s, according to Boeing.

  Just hit play:
  

• Netflix working with airlines so that its customers can stream content inflight for free

• Delta will start offering free text messaging inflight starting this weekend. That’s great for some customers, but they can’t resist trying to make themselves sound much better than they are.

  Beginning Oct. 1, Delta Air Lines will become the first U.S. global carrier* to offer free mobile messaging, providing more customers access to free messaging than any other carrier.

  There’s always an asterisk to anything Delta tells you since Alaska Airlines already offers this, and JetBlue even offers free full wifi. They pulled the same stunt claiming their frequent flyer program was best last month.