News and notes from around the interweb:

• What’s grosser than gross on a Delta flight from Atlanta to Cape Town?

  I get in my seat, smell a funky smell, look at the seatbelt and see that there’s dried throw up on my seatbelt, with some additional splash on my husband’s. I flagged down the FA and tried to get our seats changed but they stated it was a full flight and couldn’t change us. They ordered new seatbelts to replace, wiped down the seat, then had us sit once it was replaced. The smell was definitely lingering but we were told to basically suck it up, there’s nothing they could do.

  Oh, and the flight attendant “picked the seatbelts off the floor with her bare hands and put it on the galley counter where they prep F&B.”

• Alaska Airlines expected to join American Airlines-Japan Airlines transpacific joint venture

  Ross Leggett, Managing Executive Officer of Japan Airlines (JAL), expressed the intention to include Alaska Airlines Group in the trans-Pacific joint venture between JAL and American Airlines.

  Leggett, Senior Vice President of Route Marketing and Sales, said, “There are obviously challenges, but once we come to the stage where we can make a solid announcement,” and described it as “very positive.”

• I don’t even know what to say about this sentence, “customers can now kick back with a glass of Horse Soldier Bourbon Whiskey or Still G.I.N., By Dre and Snoop, two perfect options for sipping* on while waiting for their next flight” in American Airlines lounges.

  I’m just trying to (w)rap my mind around Chief Commercial Officer Heather Garboden and Senior Vice President of Premium Services Brady Byrnes O.G. gangstas?

  
  Credit: American Airlines

• Now that Michael Whitaker is no longer Administator of the FAA, he believes that the FAA should not be both regulator of air traffic control and service provider. Split those roles out into different agencies, or you’ll never get proper accountability!

  That mission tries to capture two distinct functions of FAA: regulating safety and operating the air traffic system. The Administrator ought to be focused on the safety of the flying public, and I’m pretty sure that if you took a poll of Americans, you would find they would overwhelmingly tell you that they care more about keeping flying safe than they do about the efficiency of the air traffic system. . . . [There is] an inherent conflict in FAA being both the regulator and the operator. You can’t be the conductor and [also] play the tuba section. Sometimes as a regulator you really have to bring the hammer down, and it’s a lot to ask to bring the hammer down on yourself.

• American Airlines food for sale now shows snack and drink prices in both cash and miles, with miles worth one cent apiece towards cocktails and doritos.

• The onboard credit card pitch using a bullhorn must’ve been epic