News and notes from around the interweb:
- Hotel front desk and reservations staff are being phished with fake “guest complaint” emails about bedbugs and bad stays. The emails look more legitimate because they hop through real services like Calendly and Google redirects. The goal is to get hotel staff to download a “photo” ZIP file, open what looks like an image, and install malware that gives attackers access to the computer. It’s not even clear what they actually want – hackers are setting up access in hotel systems for future use. (HT: Ben R.)
“whoever built this invested heavily in persistence and evasion for something they haven’t shown yet.”
- Imagine those United passengers are complaining about their coach buy on board options, when the only ones who have it better are Alaska flyers. The rest of us…
New Economy Preorder Options
by
u/Admirable-Cut-2115 in
unitedairlines - Clean Your Planes. I will die on this hill.
@AmericanAir do you think this is acceptable in a first class flight from LAX to CLT? A seat that has been covered in throw up all night long that has not been bothered to be cleaned? Please ask your crew to do better. pic.twitter.com/w4aFXd3OQV
— Nance (@hello_nance) July 5, 2026
- It really wouldn’t be that hard to make it clearer in the booking flow that you’re charging extra for a fuselage seat, not a window seat.
Hey @AmericanAir Can I have my points back that I used to upgrade my seating to a WINDOW seat? pic.twitter.com/CkOMkZ5JMd
— Angi Bittle (@angi_bittle) July 5, 2026
- Such a terrible customer experience, and all the airlines do this. Confiscating carry-ons is bad enough, but getting on the plane and discovering the whole thing wasn’t even necessary is infuriating.
@united help me understand why i was forced to check my carry on bag on the first leg of an international flight when all of this space is available? In my carry on are meds I couldn't get fast enough and the bag is unlocked. No clue with premium tix I would have to do this. pic.twitter.com/tQQSJocRva
— Michelle reynolds (@1207msr) July 5, 2026
- What do we think of this?
About 30 minutes into the LHR – PHX flight the pilot comes on the PA system and announces that because of America’s [the country, not the airline] 250th celebration they were going to pass out chocolate and serenade us God Bless America in its entirety. 10 hours later, it was followed up with The Star Spangled Banner exactly as we landed.
- I admit, I have never seen this one before:
Heaven forbid you put a laptop in the seatback pocket.
by
u/dwarawn in
SouthwestAirlines
Knowing which hotels (or where they’re located) would be useful for context. An operation like this smells like someone wanting details as to who’s staying where and when.
Why does that cacio a pepe rigatoni have a marinara? It already has a sauce. It doesn’t need two sauces. And as for the hotels, now some Marriotts know what it’s like to get Bonvoyed.
Gary, clean planes are nice, but could you please pick a better ‘hill’ to die on? (Perhaps, a US version of EU261.)
The requirement to pre-order meals at least 24 hours ahead of time kind of made it so the united buy on board may as well not exist to me irregardless of the food quality.
On a domestic hop the only time I ever really wanted to buy the on board food options is when either airline or personal life IRROPs means no time to grab food in the terminal and you almost never know if that is going to happen 24 hours ahead of a flight. I guess there is still the snack boxes which is what I resort to now if desperate.
Jeff Mauro does weird things to food. He’s a Chicago kid who does things that bewilder this Chicago kid. I get people like giardiniera on an Italian beef (it ruins one, for me*). But, why take a great sounding patty melt and ruin it with giardiniera? I don’t I’m a gine many would like it. It’s bad enough they slap mayo on so many pre-made sandwiches. At least there’s a lot who are happy or don’t mind. But, I have to imagine few want this “creative” addition.
*a great reason to eat at Portillo’s as you never get giardiniera by mistake.
“It’s not even clear what they actually want…” – Seriously? They want access to steal information including customer PII and credit card information.
If you fly enough to have sufficient miles to upgrade to something, you should know that not every window seat actually has a window.
Of course we know what they want with these phishing emails. People will go to great lengths to get those room upgrades!
As another Chicagoan I agree you can get what you want @ Portillo’s. In my case, that would be the hottest peppers available.
These days, PII and credit-card data is considered table stakes, and generally not worth the sort of elaborate effort being put here. Again, this smells like some sort of state-level intelligence operation.
It seems it would be much easier to use cell data to know who is where when.
Can we please save the patriotic nonsense until we have a country worthy of being proud of again?
@Billy Bob — No need to wait. Speaking your mind, protesting, opposing a bad administration… these are all ‘patriotic’ acts in and of themselves. Don’t cede any ground to these fake-triots.