News and notes from around the interweb:

• The DOJ lawsuit against the American-US Airways merger puts a lot of personnel changes on hold. Both airlines now need people to run operations that were told they wouldn’t have a job once the merger closed.

• Guy sticks a camera on his plane. Then he winds up crashing. Makes for a great video, if not a great flight. Fortunately he’s alright.

• Two Turkish Airlines pilots were abducted by Lebanese Shiites and are being held hostage to try to force Turkey to pressure Syrian rebels to release Lebanese kidnapped in Syria. This story deserves greater coverage.

• With the merger of LAN and TAM and the clarity that the combined entity becomes a member of oneworld, it’s not surprising that American miles will be able to be used on TAM beginning next year. There’s not much premium cabin availability from the US to South America, and intra-South America space usually only opens in the months leading to departure rather than when schedule opens. But it’s still another option to South America for the program that already provides the best options to get there.

• Last week I flew with the worst flight attendant I’ve run across in three years. She refused to collect my empty bottle of water (bottle had been distributed at the beginning of the flight), declaring that to be the cleaning crew’s job on the ground. She refused water during meal service, telling me (and other customers) we could have water once she was done with service. I blame former United Airlines President Pat Patterson. And see this discussion as well.

You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. Don’t miss out!