News and notes from around the interweb:

• Two flight attendants accused of running romance scam on business class passengers (HT: One Mile at a Time Here’s the pair of con women.

  The accused: Mst Maury and Khadija Sultana Shimu, flight attendants known among colleagues not just for their in-flight charm, but allegedly for their off-duty con game.

  Both women, close friends and frequent crewmates, are now being investigated for allegedly honey-trapping, blackmailing, and extorting high-profile men under the guise of love… For years, whispers have circulated about cabin crew exploiting their access to wealthy passengers. But fear of stigma kept victims silent, until now.

• Venture X Business drops all non-lounge airport activities like restaurants, spas come Oct. 31, 2025. That’s disappointing but expected, since Venture X already dropped these.

• This is a good reminder that (1) Southwest was already monetizing seat assignments before selling specific seat assignments, but (2) the pre-board brigade (more often, wheelchair customers where Southwest has to pay for the wheelchair service) were the ones trumping those that had paid the airline.

  Southwest really should refund the ‘Early Bird’ check-in fee here… it wasn’t that long enough when Early Bird was just $25, too.

  @SouthwestAir flight 4550 I spend $50 extra for group a 1 thru 5. You legit loaded 60+ people pre board I get it they are veterans, however it was not a secret that they were traveling you have absolutely screwed me out of $50 and this needs to be resolved asap. The gentlemen… pic.twitter.com/py2XocboWc

  — Larry (@LarryD14050024) September 11, 2025

• Who does Delta own in D.C.? (HT: Paul H)

  SPOTTED at the Delta Air Lines Centennial Reception last night at 101 Constitution Ave NW: Ed Bastian, Heather Wingate, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, Daniel Edwards, Bill Shuster, Bob Dold, Sens. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Dan Sullivan (R-Ark.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Lucy McBath (D-Ga.), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), John Joyce (R-Pa.), Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas), Richard Neal (D-Mass.), Rick Allen (R-Ga.), Andre Carson (D-Ind.), Nellie Pou (D-N.J.), Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), Jefferson Shreve (R-Ind.), Gabe Evans (R-Colo.), Brad Finstad (R-Minn.), Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.), Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio).

• Air India is still… a work in progress.

  Passengers on Air India’s Delhi-Singapore flight suffer without Air Condition and were deplaned after two hours.
  byu/Twitter_2006 inaviation

• The Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet — an alternative history of Afghanistan “half a century of coups, occupations and civil wars through the Taliban’s luxury hotspot.” I’ve written quite a lot about the turn from luxury to terror at this hotel.

  In The Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet, the Inter-Continental Hotel, which has sat fortress-like above Afghanistan’s embattled capital for over half a century, lands somewhere between the Berghof Sanatorium in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain and the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. It is imbued with historical symbolism, scarred by violence, tinged with menace, and has seen more than a few deranged murderers pass through its halls.