News and notes from around the interweb:
- There’s never an excuse for violating a guest’s room with a political message of any kind. There should be a key log and surveillance video showing who did this. And Marriott can’t just shrug and point out that they don’t actually own or operate most hotels.
Aventura, FL – Jewish guests at the AC Hotel by Marriott Aventura report that a hotel employee violated their belongings on Yom Kippur, leaving behind a “Free Palestine” post-it note.
The guests have filed a complaint with Marriott corporate and are demanding that all CCTV… pic.twitter.com/HoKhmUVh7L
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) October 4, 2025
- I absolutely hate United’s boarding. If you’re not a 1K or above, you need to queue up at the gate super early, or else you risk not getting overhead bin space (or at least bin space anywhere near your seat). That goes for first class Premier Platinums. American’s boarding process is much more civilized. (I don’t like American’s earlier start to boarding but they’re just matching others here, giving up a customer service advantage they had.)
@United I love & swear by your airline
but #preboarding is getting out of control.
it’s a issue if a suitcase is a couple lbs over 50 but today on UA370 out of MCO – two over 250lbs people can board before veterans, United crew members, and first class because they have a child? pic.twitter.com/gnthBxfGHD— michael (@mikeymangin) October 4, 2025
Now if only American cleaned their planes…
@AmericanAir hey American, why are somebody’s dirty socks greeting me on the plane this evening? I think @Delta’s status match challenge is looking pretty darn good right now… pic.twitter.com/o1g3QUGQDt
— Deborah Hurwitz (@MaestraHurwitz) October 4, 2025
- Uber has more points than I do. That’s a lot of points!
Uber has 51 million ABC Liquor points this year
byu/TonedBioelectricity inmildlyinteresting - Denver airport now lists an Arrivals Lounge as part of its new Great Hall (“M3L5W1 Arrivals Lounge – Concession RFP”). That decodes as Module 3 · Level 5 · West side · bay 1. This is almost certainly landside in the Level 5 West footprint, adjacent to the landside arrivals program (meeters/greeters, baggage claim level). Expect this to be timed for ~ 2028. It’s likely not an airline (United) project because it’s programmed as a concession rather than an airline lease.
- How hawker signboards tell the story of Singapore (HT: Marginal Revolution)
- Spending a day at SFO without flying
I will disagree re United’s boarding practice. As a 1K and Lifetime EXP I get to pre-board on United but not on AA. I generally find the United pre-board queue orderly and compliant.
@Solucia – as I wrote, United 1Ks have good boarding experiences – everyone else does not.
Leftists sure are strangely in love with a group of people that murdered 1300 civilians unprovoked, including women and infants, took hostage hundreds more(still), and have a culture that isn’t exactly woman, gay or trans friendly, not to mention anyone that isn’t Muslim. Strange bedfellows indeed.
There’s a tiny sliver of land in the middle east that is a democracy, and not Islamic, and you want to destroy it? You’re being used. I challenge any of these “free Palestine” activists to go live a few months in the totalitarian, fundamentalist Islamic society you are advocating for.
Boarding a Delta flight MCO to ATL heard gate agent say…
“Families with small children will need to board with the group number on your boarding pass. Because if families at this station were given preboarding, that would be ALL of you.”
It is an MCO thing.
Obviously, not cool.
@Mantis — You said recently that you literally abandoned the West and moved back to Asia… so, pal, what are you even talking about, regarding co-called boogeyman ‘leftists’…
Anyway, on this general topic, I consider myself center-left, at least economically and socially, maybe geopolitically, and I’m still very much in-favor of the state of Israel (yes, one of the few democracies in the region). That said, the people of Israel have many dimensions and ideologies among them, some of whom are not pleased with the hardline government that currently rules over there. (See recent protests over the judiciary).
The point remains: All free, sovereign nations, especially, Ukraine, and probably soon enough, Taiwan, should defend themselves when and if attacked (as Israel was by Hamas, backed by Iran, nearly 2 years ago). Israel’s demand to get its hostages back is reasonable, and I hope they achieve that goal, conclude this conflict, and rebuild as soon as possible.
Likewise, I hope Ukraine and its allies will do what is necessary to maintain its sovereignty, ideally, recover its lost territory in accordance with the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, and rebuild and continue to protect itself with assistance from those allies. No one is perfect, but the Ukrainians have proven themselves as the courageous heroes of our time.
These days, no country is doing a decent job of respecting the dignity of human life, individually or collectively (no one ‘wants’ famines, collective punishment, war crimes, or genocides.)
For instance, China is providing intelligence to Russia to target Ukrainian hospitals and schools (civilian targets, apparent war crimes). Yes, the United States is backing Netanyahu’s government, with arms and likely intelligence. It’s not the same though, because Russia attacked Ukraine unprovoked; it is the aggressor. Israel was attacked by Hamas; it is not the aggressor.
Lest we forget all the other problems of the world, equally unaddressed, like South Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Haiti, the Sahel. So, not just Israel-Gaza, Ukraine-Russia, China-and its neighbors. And of course, the USA under #47, seems ready to go to Venezuela for an Iraq 2.0 under the pretext of a Duterte-style ‘drug-war,’ but really, for that sweet dino-juice. Oh, and it appears, we’re also declaring ‘war’ on our own cities and neighbors. Not nice.
It’s 2025. We have the resources and technology to stop these things, but we continue these proxy wars, because someone is making money off the conflict, no doubt. It’s disturbing, and I wish we’d not blame each other so much, and instead focus on those key players who divide and conquer their fellow man.
Thanks for the fun interactive hawker article. Made me hungry.
@Mantis — Also, upon re-reading your earlier comment, are you, in-fact, Bill Maher? Bah…
I read the article on spending a day at SFO – kind of strange that it contained the following passage without mentioning that following the advice might be a violation of TSA rules, not to mention messing with an airline’s seat inventory:
“To pass through TSA, I bought a cheap airline ticket with the intention of canceling it. A one-way flight to Los Angeles was under $100, and depending on airline guidelines, if you notify the carrier at least 30 minutes before boarding that you can’t take the flight, you’ll receive a credit valid for up to a year.”
@mantis – you are 100% right ! This “free Palestine ” junk is senseless propaganda..the only oppression they are under is from hamas, but the mainstream media covers up the fact that hamas uses their people as human shields, steals from them regularly and Israel actually WARNS them before it has to attack! What other military does that?? Anyone with a clear thinking mind can see that Israel is not the bad guy at all
Ok, fine I’ll bite. You are using a tweet with 77 views from an account with 246 followers as an entry for UA’s boarding process. What? Did you just decide you wanted to complain about it and do a search for a tweet? You write the blog, you can (and do) complain about anything you want! You don’t need to come up with an excuse!
Also, he’s suggesting that a family with a baby shouldn’t get to board before veterans? Not active duty military, but veterans. That seems much crazier to me than UA’s boarding process.
The 250lb people are the reason airlines need to go back to saying “Those who need assistance in boarding.”
Everyone thinks they need extra time to board, even if it’s just to find room for their carry on.
@Mantis
Post of the day. Like I have said before and will say it again, most of these idiots couldn’t find Gaza on a map.
Do the math. The equivalent number of Americans would be 40,000 murdered compared to the 1300 or so Israeli’s murdered that day in October 2023. Israel has a population of 10 million compared to over 300 million for the U.S. Israel has had enough of the daily rocket attacks, Hamas terrorists popping out of tunnels, etc.
The primary problem I have with this Marriott incident is this: Saying “Free Palestine” to Jewish people who may have nothing at all to do with the current conflict is antisemitic to the core. If the visitors were IDF members in uniform, it would still be inappropriate for a staffer to do, but it would at least be a message based on the guests’ affiliation rather than their religion.
@DaveS — Yup, prejudice, bigotry, and hate don’t often understand nuance.
And, unlike some of those who lean right, it’s disingenuous to just blame your perceived enemies (time to ‘dunk’ on those libs. Pft.)
It’s been 2 years; free the hostages; peace and justice achieved through transparency and accountability; rebuild together. This is the way.
I love arrivals lounges. The ultimate in luxury. I’ve only been to 2!
Don’t worry; it’s a Marriott. They will never provide you your free palestine and corporate will back the hotel up.
You know what actually ‘comes to mind’… how it’s been 2 years, today, and yet there are still hostages who need to be freed. That actually matters. Hate on a note is just silly.
I’m betting that boarding tweet was written by a Silver status flyer who finally got a first upgrade on a flight with a light load. It’s sad that some people have such fragile egos that their self image is crushed if their often highly gamed airline status is not given due respect in the boarding order. Probably the same kind of person who would slowly exit the first cabin to savor the power of the cattle being held on their behalf
Glad to see I’m not the only one who thought the selected tweet for boarding issues was, to be kind, rather odd. I think everyone is confused as to the relevance or triggered by the 250lb reference, and I am left like others to wonder if families with children are or are not being considered as valid for preboarding? If you want plenty of bin space, just fly RyanAir or Wizz — so much of the plane is flying light that there’s no problem. And no status required.
@Mantis long time me not commenting here, and agreeing with all that you said as always. And as always we hace a new resident in charge of the left. Leftists always side with criminales b/c socialism at it’s core is criminal (and genocidal, when finally implemented as history proves).
Speaking of siding with criminals… As a Venezuelan I warned long time ago in the comments what was going to happen with the open border situation. Now the US is flooded with the worst of the worst criminal gangs of my country (the same ppl that made us, decent ppl exile from our country) and now the left is crying because those criminals are taken back where they belong. They even have the urge to pamper them with ‘free’ healthcare. Clowns!
@BBK — Yeah, yeah, whining about boogeymen. Left this. Right that. Nothing new. But, you did actually say something interesting about yourself, if true…
Since you mentioned your citizenship (Venezuelan, unless that’s merely your heritage, as in, you are a descendant of immigrants from there), how do you feel about many of the Venezuelans in America (estimated 605K people), who are soon to lose their protected status (TPS), starting November 7, 2025?
I disagree with the court’s majority on that decision, but, they’ve made their choice, and the administration seems to be proceeding with plans to deport them all, if they can.
However, most of those people aren’t ‘criminals,’ rather they have official documentation until that date. After then, I presume ICE will come for them, wherever they are, even if the agency’s jurisdiction is to enforce within 100 miles of the border.
I presume you think of yourself as ‘one of the good ones,’ and either aren’t in the USA, or have US citizenship already, so why should you or anyone else care about your fellow countrymen and their plight, eh?
Seems kinda cruel to me and anyone with a conscience. Like, weren’t most of them fleeing a literal communist dictatorship under Maduro? Shouldn’t we have wanted to help them escape and/or defeat that regime?