News and notes from around the interweb:
- Pilots face mandatory retirement at 65. That’s too young and it shouldn’t be strictly age-based. But flight attendants want you to believe they’re ‘there primarily for your safety’ yet they do to face mandatory retirement. Some work well into their 80s.
One older crewmember at a major airline was well-known and received quite a lot of media attention for her advanced age, but I’ve been told by multiple people familiar with the matter that she could no longer arm and disarm doors – but they kept giving her a pass.
Through the ’60s airlines limited the job to young, single women, and terminated them by age 32–35 (sometimes younger), also enforcing weigh-ins and marriage bans. This disappeared after Diaz v. Pan Am (1971) opened the job to men, and the ‘Love Airlines’ case Wilson v. Southwest (1981) which finished off the “sexy young stewardess only” policy. At what age should flight attendants have to retire?
She said flight attendants should retire at 32. Times have changed, but what do you think… should flight attendants still retire at 32? pic.twitter.com/2DgCQQDcwS
— Fahad Naim (@Fahadnaimb) September 14, 2025
- Ghost kitchens are failing rather than saying how great the restaurant model is and that nothing else can work, I think the lessons here are:
- many vendors are low quality and churning customers rather than earning repeat business doesn’t work well and
- relying on DoorDash and Uber Eats for all your business (versus some extra revenue at the margin) doesn’t work because their fees are too high.
It’s one thing when your fixed costs are basically covered by the restaurant business and you’re losing 30% on incremental business to the delivery platform. It’s another when that 30% comes off the top of every ticket.
- Content owners want more money when you stream their services inflight and see airlines as deep pocketed. But why should a wifi service provider be liable if you exceed the content license of your streaming service (because they decide standard subscriptions don’t include streaming on an airplane)? This is dumb, but most intellectual property law is dumb.
- Carnival Cruise Lines Backpedals On Stripping Lifetime Elite Status, Unveils Improvements After Announcing Gutting Of Program The bad news about lifetime Carnival status is you need to keep cruising for the rest of your life with Carnival to use it.
- The Department of Transportation has the unique authority to waive antitrust rules with foreign airlines. That comes out of history, where IATA set international airfares privately the way the federal government set domestic ones prior to deregulation. Airline joint ventures, an end-run around foreign ownership restrictions, were permitted as a carrot to encourage countries to sign Open Skies treaties with the United States.
Since Mexico pulled slots at Mexico City’s airport, disadvantaging U.S. carriers, the Department of Transportation determined they were violating Open Skies and thus has ordered Delta and Aeromexico to sunset their joint venture before January 1 although they can still codeshare. (This means they cannot coordinate schedules and pricing or share revenue.)
- I can often find Virgin Australia business class on sale for the price of Qantas economy, and on domestic narrowbody aircraft there’s really not a discernable differene in product. According to the airline’s CEO, they’re now profitable and focused on the “value” segment of small business and premium leisure travelers rather than chasing Qantas for corporate business.
They’re testing long-haul potential through wet leases but won’t buy widebodies before 2027, while Velocity Frequent Flyer is adding a new “Platinum Plus” tier and shifting toward spend-based status. A decade ago it was possible to get business class awards between the U.S. and Australia on Virgin Australia even during peak periods.
- Airlines seriously need to fix this. They spend a hundred million on an aircraft, invest hundreds of millions on food, and then ruin the passenger experience by confiscating carry-on bags at the gate only for the customer to board and discover it was completely unnecessary.
@united you have the WORST and most RUDE employees of any airline I’ve flown. I don’t think you want to be responsible for the $10k plus of camera equipment in my carry on, yet you want to YELL at me about checking it when there is still plenty of overhead space left. pic.twitter.com/guxJFgHU3I
— Monica Leavell (@monica_leavell) September 15, 2025
- A C-61 boarding position! With no more than 175 seats, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Southwest flight go up that high in the wild. And this passenger was actually second to last to board.
So, we doin’ ageism or sexism today? Or just gonna bash workers and unions, like usual? Help me set expectations.
The good old days when you could retire and still afford rent and groceries. Americans will never see that again. Seems like it might be past the years of having an elected official not announce “open season” on those they are in the opposite party. What a country!
@Ray — I’m with you on paying people a living (if not ‘thriving’) wage, and supporting a social safety net. Like, yes, fill from the bottom up, not the top down, please, all day, every day.
However, while cynicism can feel good in the moment, but it’s not a solution. Even our resident bigot @Walter Barry recently recognized on here (in a separate comment thread) that this is a metaphorical ‘pendulum’; if so, I think you and I would agree that the current administration is clearly overreaching, in so many ways. And, if we follow the pendulum… that side should beware, because the backlash may be extreme in the other direction soon after. Think of it, after this 2nd Gilded Age, a new Progressive Era could be upon us (after we clean-up the mess….) Or, we forget about all that ‘hope’ nonsense, and adopt nihilism (the ‘who cares’ and ‘burn it all down’ types), but I don’t recommend it.
Discrimination is only allowed against straight, white males. Aka the only people who earn things based on merit.
@Ray
Thankfully the fascist Democrat party is out of power and groceries have slowly been coming down on prices and debanking people based on political views is coming to an end.
It’s funny how lefties now think cancel culture is real and actually a bad thing. Hmmm… FAFO.
@Walter Barry — I meant to ask, which airlines are you flying these days? Aeroflot, S7, Rossiya, Pobeda, Ural, or Nordwind?
Walter. You must be getting paid overtime on the big troll bucks.. Groceries on the rise with crops going to rot. Maybe you could help the Maine farmers out and dig some potatoes.
I thought FAs get recertified each year for our safely
bbbut our primary job is safety! Yeah right. Your primary job is leaching off the general public, demanding above market wages for unskilled labor, and not even doing that well…instead just browsing your phone and telling customers you can’t help with their luggage because of liability…or maybe you’re just terrible at your job. This is what all unions result in. Those good at their job are punished instead of rewarded, because they make the typical lazy union slob look bad. This is the only reason that Delta is better. And Delta would be even better if they had any real competition. And yes, anybody with any real career potential should retire by 32, or well before then, and do something a little more challenging.
@Mantis — And, and… please explicitly tell the flight crews everything you just said here, but, like, in-person, just to see what happens… (‘huh, why does this drink taste funny?’)
Nah, unions aren’t the problem; nearly all flight crews are decent people, hard-working, do prioritize our safety, then our comfort.
That said, you’ll make our pal Tim’s day talking up Delta like that… though, did you know Delta’s pilots and dispatchers have had unions (pilots since 1934)? Hopefully, some day soon, the flight attendants, baggage handlers, maintenance crews, and other employees will join soon enough.
I think technically c70 is theoretically possible if you have zero business select fares.
@Walter Barry
Do you drink that Kool-Aid neat or on-the-rocks? Unless you’re on one of those commie progressive benefit programs (such as Food Stamps), you’ve been paying significantly more for eggs, beef and veal, and sugar and sweets. That info comes directly from the USDA. Of course, as soon as blaming all of this on the last guy no longer works, the Dictator In Chief will say that Agency is staffed by radical Democrat leftists. He’ll take a momentary pause from raping underage girls to replace the current (qualified) head of the USDA with a MAGAt hack. The agency will either stop issuing reports entirely, or will only release reports containing “alternate facts” that have been approved by Donnie Dementia.
@Maryland, @Lucky Larry — I’m obviously ‘on your side’ here (you know, like, following along with objective reality), but, I think you might get lost ‘in the weeds’ with folks like @Walter Barry, who I seriously do not think even lives in the USA, like, based on his regular parroting of literal Kremlin disinformation talking-points on here and other travel blog sites (he uses the same name there). “Prove me wrong.”
If the job is skill-based then have a proper skill’s test be the determination, not age, weight, sex, etc.
If you crash the sim, or can’t work the door, then time to do something else!
I feel as though airlines should ask for passengers to declare carry-on bags at check-in. If they have the inventory, they could more easily predict who needs to gate-check bags in advance. You could actually ask for volunteers to gate-check early and then notify individuals (by boarding group or status or otherwise) that they must gate-check during boarding. Feels like computers would do better than humans here. Are any airlines trying this?
Some idiot Marxist drones here think that unskilled labor should be drunk with power, and the fact they can act with impunity is evidence of what exactly? Thanks for proving my point.
The flying public will disagree with you that nearly all domestic FAs are decent, hard working people. Gaslight elsewhere. Anyone who flies any asian carrier knows this to be true. Only unions, regulations and threats of lawsuits keeps these garbage humans in their low effort low skilled overpaid jobs. Anyone with half a brain and not a brainwashed delusional leftist (excludes you) knows this.
1990. Walter is another paid by PR MAGA troll. He put up at least 20 posts yesterday. getting paid by the post, propaganda needed to distract attention from the reality of what this administration is trying to hide.
@Mantis — Oof, I’d go easy on calling any other human beings ‘garbage’… And, I guess you’re doing the tandem ‘Marxist’ and ‘unskilled’ tropes on here now… yikes. Then, you ironically proceed to praise Asian carriers… which ones, good sir? Some, like Vietnam and mainland China are literally Marxist countries in-name (though, they operate like corrupt capitalist ones.)
I’d dial down the rhetoric; instead, maybe focus on reforms and improvements that would create better conditions for both workers and consumers. Usually, it’s the capital class and their mercenaries (the management class) that are abusing the most of us. Meanwhile, you’re practically ‘carrying water’ for the super-rich while punching down these workers. Not great.
@Maryland — Wait… you guys get ‘paid’ to be here?! Aww, man.. what happened to ‘love of the game.’ Friends, I’m only here because I enjoy it (and because Gary allows it…)
As an aside, a lot of the tech industry has a de facto retirement age in the early 30s.
@Denver Refugee — In the USA at least, if you play your ‘cards’ right… (as in, cash-out, as opposed to getting forced-out), however, the ‘good ole days’ of that may be coming to an end.
Haha Maryland, 1990 has that count on one article here! Yeah ok your leftist grievance culture has no effect. We’re all so glad you and your buddy are offended on behalf of others. You must be such a great person for posting rightthink online. Hope you got your dopamine fix.
And Mr 90s, you pedantically call out a few asian countries that suck, congrats. Your exception proves the rule. Actually I live in Asia now, so I don’t need you to lecture me on the subject. Enjoy your domestic flight on AA. You deserve it.
3 comments on one article here for me is two too many, goodbye.
@Mantis — Nice ‘I know you are, but what am I.’ Good stuff.
No need to run, always welcome here, though, if you are in Asia, probably past your bedtime, no?
Since safety is job one by airplane crews, the cabin crew should have to retire at the same age as the pilots.
Have to ask my wife, age 75, if she is too old to work. She (and I) just got back from the Triathlon Nationals and have 2 more tri events in Florida this December, plus a very long distance run coming up. Of course there is a very ill looking overweight man who has the hardest job in the world, and at nearing 80 may well be physically and mentally unfit. But that’s another story.
@mantis, it sounds like someone hit on a FA and got properly turned down and is now chewing on some sour grapes… either that or was baptized in vinegar. either way the bitterness is sad.. it must be a lonely life.
1990. I track trolls because they ruin the blog experience by hijacking thread. PR firms hire them. In fact unions hire them. ( I am pro-union generally but recognize when they are not serving their members well. ) Unpaid but always speak the truth as I see it. Can you say the same?
@Maryland — Yes, I am not paid (but, after this conversation, I am thinking I probably should be!) Just a hobby. I’ve adopted the policy of ‘troll the trolls.’
@drrichard — Wow! Well done! (And nice ‘shade’ thrown!)
Walter Barry: This gay white male had to accomplish things on merit because I had to stay in the closet during most of my career thanks to bigoted breeders like you. I’m 60 now and the discrimination against me is coming from the gay community, who automatically define older gay men like me as trolls. So go ram it up your fundament. We gay guys enjoy that according to you.
Mmm…Better ask Pam Ann!