News and notes from around the interweb:
- At least 17 unsuspecting passengers have been caught up in luggage tag switching scheme over the past year as part of a drug operation – including on flights headed to countries where drug smuggling carries the death penalty. A baggage employee removees a passenger’s checked bag tag off their luggage and attaches it to a drug-filled suitcase, so the contraband bag travels under the innocent passenger’s name (and the passenger’s actual bag is left behind or rerouted).
If the bag makes it through, it’s picked up by the drug gang on the other end. If it doesn’t, it’s the passenger who gets arrested. Here’s video of passengers in the Dominican Republic being taken into custody for smuggling marijuana as part of this scam.
- Nauru will hold a referendum to chnage it name to Naoero (nah-oh-EH-roh). The country gained independence from Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. and is third smallest in the world (behind Vatican City and Monoco) at just 7.7 square miles.
I dunno, I don’t call Swaziland ‘Eswatini’. I guess they can decide if it’s worth spending money to change all the signs.
- And American had already scaled back their A321XLR order from 50 to 40 as I had been first to report back in December.
AA XLRs:
There seems to be some delay in AA receiving some of the XLRs that they were supposed to take delivery of this summer.
I speculate that it's due to a manufacturing concession American doesn't want to accept, something along those lines.— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) May 18, 2026 at 9:58 PM
- Houston American Express Centurion Lounge will be renovated and expanded from 8,596 square feet to ~ 23,000 square feet in a project expected to take through 2028.
- American Airlines internally acknowledges too many broken seats and has a plan to start fixing this over the summer.
First class? Try “duct tape class.” ✈️
Paid for a premium seat and got this broken foot hammock dangling in my lap the entire flight. It’s been smacking my legs nonstop. Crew’s official response? “Nothing we can do.”
This is the “luxury” experience now? @AmericanAir please 🙏 fix pic.twitter.com/DDisFllxWK— Robert Brown, MSRE (@multifam_VTIGUY) May 18, 2026
- The Washington Post editorial board says the FAA shouldn’t be regulating itself. That’s a recipe for the kind of lack of accountability that’s seen us invest billions in modernizing air traffic control without actually modernizing air traffic control and it’s given us a series of near-misses and unnecessary congestion and delays. The best practice is splitting up the regulator and service provider.
It’s an absolute no-brainer that has been blocked in the past by private pilots who fear that structural changes would mean they’ll eventually be asked to cover their full cost of using the service (even if initially airlines pick up the tab).
On the bags story, yet another ‘win’ for the carry-on-only folks. Bah! (At least RCMP arrested those who were supposedly doing this at YYZ.) Seems like, if you must check a bag, take a photo of it with the tag at the check-in counter before they send it off, so at least you have some evidence; keep the bag receipts; use AirTags or other trackers (even if the airlines don’t ‘like’ those, because then you can hold them accountable for losing your bags.)
@ 1990 — Um, NEVER check a bag.
@Gene — I never plan to; sometimes, though, airlines do kinda ‘force’ you to. Like, arbitrary enforcement of weight limits, tripods (at least in Indonesia, apparently), etc. Not always my choice.
Carry-on-only reduces the chances of various problems of various risk levels that come with checking in baggage.
Gene – If you are travelling on many asian or meiddle east airlines and like to pack more than like two pairs of pants, two shirts and your toiletries for your trip, then you will be checking a bag. The total carryon weight allowance is 15 pounds and your bag itself will be half of that amount.
For a long time we have used some very sturdy tags with our name in the material. They’re on all our luggage. I just intended it to be very clear, it never occurred to me that it might be useful in proving that’s not my bag.
Those Canadians. What will they think of next. I’m glad that I no longer fly through Toronto. I hope that this does not become a trend in other places.
@jns — Oh, come now… Billy Bishop isn’t that bad… oh, you meant Pearson, didn’t you? Bah!
@ Roper — That’s one of the myriad reasons to never buy economy.
Is this I-only-carryon some new cult? If you take proper vacations of decent length, why would you slep around the 50-pound bag you need? Sure, if I’m off for a weekend, I could carryon. But, I never waste my money on short vacations.
@ This comes to mind. — Im not sure I fully understand your post, but what would you need beyond what you can fit in your carryon + personal bag? You only need one change of clothes every 3 days. Rotate, mix n match, let them air out, hand wash if absouletly needed, in cheap places like SE Asia, drop at a wash & fold.
@This comes to mind — If you go away for a week, carry-on is more than enough; if you go away for more than a week, use laundry services while away. If you’re actually that ‘fancy,’ as you’ve said before, going D1 to Europe and/or Down Under once or more a year (from Columbus, Ohio, of all places…), you can handle it. @Gene gets it.
Surprised it hasn’t been reported yet, but PHL is also getting an expanded Centurion Lounge. Amex is taking over the BA Galleries Lounge below, which can’t happen soon enough with them being far eclipsed by the Sapphire Lounge!