Travel strips away the version of someone they perform on dates. Delays, bad hotel rooms, money decisions, tired mornings, service workers, bathroom habits, and long stretches of conversation show you how they actually move through the world — and whether they make life easier or harder.
Trains have a near-monopoly on cinematic romance, and Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise may be the best example of why. A plane can throw two strangers together, but it is much harder for a flight to create the same mix of freedom, wandering, and shared possibility that comes from stepping off in a city neither person expected to explore together.
JetBlue’s CEO was spotted onboard a Boston–Fort Lauderdale flight playing “Seat Bingo” with passengers and giving away free tickets — with two of the winners sitting in middle seats. The video is making the rounds again, and while it appears to be recycled, it’s still good to see JetBlue’s top executive making the flight feel a little more human.
News and notes from around the interweb: When I complain about crowded airport lounges, with lines to get in, being not luxury – it’s all relative. The comparison for most isn’t whether the lounge meets some external standard… it’s ‘compared to the terminal’. So at Chicago O’Hare there’s this. Often people just want a clean bathroom. Hello @fly2ohare T2 @AmericanAir 🫣🫣🫣 pic.twitter.com/dMXO5AGowE — Rajjick 🛫 (@fergusonrodrick) May 23, 2026 Reminder that the Emirates Airbus A380 first class cabin is actually mid. (It’s just the shower that makes it special, the amenities, and the food and beverage program.) HT: Paul H This was kind of funny, especially the last line. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sam Morril (@sammorril) Airport Weirdo “a crowd-sourced gallery of funny and weird people spotted in airports.” Jumping…
Forty-three years ago, a brand new Boeing 767 cruising at 41,000 feet over Canada went quiet as both engines failed — not because of sabotage or mechanical collapse, but because a metric conversion mistake had sent it into the sky with only half the fuel it needed. What happened next became one of aviation’s most famous survival stories: a powerless widebody gliding toward an old air base that was no longer really an air base at all.
San Francisco airport is planning a private terminal for commercial airline passengers, letting travelers skip the main terminal, clear dedicated TSA screening, and get driven across the airfield to their plane. It is the PS-style airport experience now spreading from LAX to Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, and soon to the Bay Area.
A California hotel clerk saw Israeli passports at check-in, confronted the guests as “Zionists” and “baby killers,” filmed the exchange, and then posted it himself. The hotel says he no longer works there — but the video captures exactly why guests should not have to pass a political loyalty test to get a room.
A man died in an Uber crash on the way to Midway Airport. Now the Illinois Supreme Court is considering whether his widow can sue Uber in court — or whether her own unrelated Uber app account forces her wrongful-death claims into arbitration.
Avis wants $1,278 for a rental car dent, but its own photos allegedly do not show the damage — and the dispute site is down while the charge still looms. Plus: Air Transat flight attendants cannot use cannabis even off-duty, Delta Sky Club lines hit 30 minutes, and Minneapolis airport meetings can happen behind TSA.
This woman won’t fly private or first class with her kids. And there’s a reasonable argument here, but this one’s so over the top I’m actually not sure if it’s parody?
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
