News and notes from around the interweb:

• California city may ban loud smelly people from buses and trains (HT: Alan H.)

• Don’t forget to enter my giveaway of 4 hotel nights in Paris (with breakfast) at the contemporary boutique Hotel Eugene en Ville in a superior room with private terrace.

  Comment in the giveaway post to enter. This is courtesy of Luxury Travel Diary’s auctions which often go quite cheap.

• American AAdvantage sometimes has difficulty booking Etihad awards but it turns out they’re not the only program that does.

• “I suppose at least one airline should be rational here, though it’s strange that it’s United.” Cranky Flier on United not aggressively growing in Los Angeles the way that American and Delta are trying to — he suggests that smaller Boeing 787s on international flights are better for customers than larger planes (which meant more seats, lower fares, better upgrade and award inventory) because the alternative would have been killing a route. In some cases maybe, but I’m not sure that’s clear.

• Caesars’ Total Reward complicates the casino empire’s bankruptcy (HT: Alan H.)

• Chase will leverage its cost advantage (no incremental cost for additional volume through the Visa payments network) to offer merchants lower transaction fees for adopting ‘Chase Pay’ which will launch next year. Their other advantage is partnering with MCX, which gives them access to a large number of key retailers including 7-Eleven, Best Buy, HMSHost (airports!), Lowe’s, Michaels, Publix, Sears, Shell, Target, and Walmart.

  

• Are airlines spending $2 billion a year too much when they returned leased aircraft because they’re poor negotiators and don’t scrutinize lease agreements? Possibly, though some of those costs would need to be picked up by lessors or the next operator of the aircraft. And shedding maintenance expense prior to turnover of the aircraft would likely be offset at least in part by a higher lease price.