News and notes from around the interweb:
- This is why elite status is worth so much less – airlines sell upgrades for $26 instead of leaving space left for status members. Delta is probably most aggressive at the lowest price point. And that surely costs the airlines more than the incremental revenue from ‘selling’ these seats.
These are the $26 upgrades to first class they’ve been talking about
byu/Remote-Employee2719 indelta - I hate this with the burning fury of a thousand suns.
#unitedairlines @united Gate crew Jax to IAD “Flight crew let us know all overhead space taken. You have to gate check” even though we have a tight connection. This is what we find on the plane. Liars pic.twitter.com/Nvzs21hxh5
— Robert Perry (@perryrob) November 22, 2025
- Look, I get it – more than most. I’m an old line civil libertarian. I hate the way our right to travel has been burdened and that we’ve just accepted it. But I’ve explained why I signed up for Global Entry way back when… Long before Snowden I’d written that the government was storing all cell phone geolocation data in Utah data centers (which readers thought made me a conspiracy theorist but turned out to be 100% true). I figured if they’ve got all my data I might as well get through airports faster…
I am once again back to bitch about how horrific TSA and American air travel is.
After I turned down facial recognition, the TSA agent couldn’t “verify” my REAL ID (that I waited 3 hours at the DMV to get) because his computer was glitching and wouldn’t recognize it.
It has… pic.twitter.com/qx3H2PkKg9
— Savanah Hernandez (@Savsays) November 23, 2025
- If your job is to drive cars, maybe learn how to drive cars? I bought a manual when I was 18, and learned by driving it off the lot. It really isn’t hard.
This valet does not accept manual cars
byu/Maleficent_Ferret359 inmildlyinteresting - Air Canada flight attendant wears pin calling for genocide against Jews in Israel, a picture of Israel in all Palistinian colors with the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the center. This violates the airline’s uniform rules (and this person is an appalling human being).
- Washington Post calls for spinning off air traffic control. Having the FAA regulate itself is a disaster. Tying funding to congressional appropriations cycles is a terrible way to do major technology investment, and the FAA itself has been terrible at managing projects. Airlines and private jets should pay for use. This is a total no-brainer.
Delta selling upgrades is great for those who stopped chasing miles and are now free agents. Being high level elite now means that I have been a sucker.
I am now a free agent except have slight loyalty to one airline.
Learning to drive stick where it’s flat is relatively easy. In hilly areas – that’s a different story.
It’s a skill that is becoming less and less relevant, though, even in Europe.
A pin showing Israel with a different flag/religion is genocide but actual genocide is not genocide. Got it.
If people enjoy flying Delta, go for it. Fly who you would but anyone that is looking at their mileage account while doing so has to be out of their mind
What a worthless program and a reflection of the Delta side of the two-way loyalty to their customers.
But it’s a business, of course, not a charity.
Basically, Delta is begging you to stop chasing status and receive more benefits by not spending tens of thousands of dollars in the hopes of receiving an automatic upgrade…
$26 for PDX/DFW is crazy but a very good deal. I’d expect to see sub $50 upgrades only on sub 300 mile flights. Remember all of this is controlled by Algos and AI and I can assure you that despite all the hype don’t expect algos and AI to garner sensical results anytime soon.
Your take on Global Entry vs. digital privacy is correct (the war was lost a long time ago), although I guess I miss those 1990s internet days when all of the cool bloggers proudly displayed their electronic frontier foundation blue ribbons?
Similarly with the $26 upgrades, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Bought one last week. No regrets.
For the record, I take that flight often. The upgrade is only for the 28 minute leg from PDX-SEA, no cabin service and maybe a cup of coffee. As a gold medallion I’m upgraded half the time, doesn’t really matter on hops like this.
$26 is the new $49 it seems. To be fair, what I’ve unsurprisingly noticed is when they are this cheap they typically are a) very short flights (< 1.5 hours) and b) flights that have enough seats open where here's a decent chance you could likely get a whole row to yourself in economy.
Had my manual transmission car in the shop. The new kid assigned to back it out of the bay had never driven a stick. His coworkers had fun with that.
Maybe I’m an idiot (no trouble finding people who think that), but I have a DL and passport, so I know my photo is in both state and federal databases. TSA knows I passed through a checkpoint at my home airport today. Even if they lie about deleting that picture they took, what’s the issue? The have my photo, and I’m sure I’m on CCT “tapes” from the airport. I simply can’t see what privacy I’d be protecting by turning down a pix @ TSA. Of, yeah, I also gave TSA my prints for recheck, and I’ll have to give them to get into Shengen next year. Gary is right; if they’re going to have that data, I might as avoid inconvenience.
Whatever. They’re all doing this these days. @Gene’s WFBF is the way. Platinum and Diamond are still worth it for RUCs and GUCs regardless (if you earn that naturally, anyway, like through flying, spend, Headstart, etc.; wouldn’t go out of your way to ‘earn’ it though.)
I don’t believe what is happening in Gaza is genocide, contra many of my friends. All the forced migration under military threat comes close to ethnic cleansing, and no doubt some of the wackos in the current Israeli government would probably be OK with killing all Palestinians. OTOH, a pin with Palestinian colors on a map of Israel could objectively be seen as calling for ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel. Taking the leap to genocide is kinda ridiculous. And also, there’s no good reason for this FA to be wearing it whatever the intention.
As others noted on Reddit $25 to upgrade a 30min flight is not a steal. WN wanted $224 just for early boarding (on planes with no extra legroom) so maybe DL is leaving money on the table?
UA & AA used to charge $25 for 500 mile upgrades stickers so maybe this is just back to the future lol
I’m a Conservative, and I have no issue with facial recognition. She should make her life easier by accepting the facial scan, as most people do. This isn’t a political issue.
I’m waiting for Delta to give me a similar upgrade offer for my upcoming LAS to RDU red eye. So far it hasn’t come anywhere close.
$26 for a first class upgrade from PDX to SEA is not worth it. It’s about a dollar a minute from gate to gate. There’s no beverage service, even in 1st class.
I like Savanah Hernandez. Hopefully we will see more of her on another rant.
The Israel war on Gaza has been extremely brutal, perhaps unnecessarily so, but actual “genocide”? I suspect that if Israel wanted to commit “genocide” of the Palestinian Arabs they would have the ability to do a much better job of it.