LAX Wants to Make Rideshares Even More Expensive — After Building One of the Worst Pickup Systems in the Country [Roundup]

News and notes from around the interweb:

• LAX already has one of the worst rideshare experiences in the country, with a miserable bus to the rideshare lot. Now they want to make it significantly more expensive, too. And since it’s Los Angeles, naturally they approved the fee hike unanimously.

  Eventually the way to avoid the Central Terminal premium fee will be to take the train that eventually opens maybe next year. Also, rideshare will have to limit the percentage of passengers that et dropped off at the Central Terminal – so if this new fee along doesn’t do it, this is a stealth requirement to raise fares too. They have to pay for exorbitant construction costs somehow.

  In a unanimous vote, the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners agreed to increase the $4 fee to $6 for all companies providing passenger pick-ups and drop-offs at the airport, either within the terminal area or at the LAX-It lot.

  That fee is expected to jump to $12 for pickups or drop-offs within the central terminal area.

  …The board on Tuesday also unanimously approved a separate proposal to require taxi and ride-hailing services to limit the percentage of passengers they pick up and drop off within the central terminal area.

  LAX is apparently doing everyone a favor by doubling the fee for all Ubers, Lyfts, taxis, and limos in an attempt to ease traffic into the airport.

  Officials claim the rate increase will not be passed on to the drivers or consumers. Meaning the officials have never taken an… pic.twitter.com/qPqeS9JeGS

  — Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) March 11, 2026

• Southwest crews win exclusion of other employees from jump seat access. Those other employees are very unhappy, since it reduces their chances to commute on largely full flights.

  one person opines:
  "Non crew lose huge benefit of 4th jumpseat (and 5th 6th on 800s). Jump seats for crews only. Sounds like it might be a negotiating tactic to get crew to move bags out of the bins above extended legroom (premium) seats"

  No idea, not too familiar with it all

  — JonNYC (@xJonNYC) March 10, 2026

• Hyatt Regency Hill Country completes $100 million renovation I like the property, but it was certainly tired. It’s a short drive for me to San Antonio so I look forward to seeing it.

• Hilton devalued Honors again and they did it silently, probably attracting less attention because while many hotels now cost more points they didn’t increase the maximum number of points any hotel can cost. That makes it harder to get a sense of how bad things are.

  This isn’t getting a standalone post because honestly I just see less and less value in Honors overall so it’s tough to get too excised about it, even though objectively I probably should. (HT: Doctor of Credit)

• Back around 2002 you could Priceline the Grand Hyatt San Francisco ~ $30/night and Priceline stays counted towards status. You’d earn Hyatt Diamond and have club lounge access as well. FlyerTal member CalItalian actually did live there, if I recall correctly, Pricelining 30 days at a time.

  For $3k/mo, you could live at the Courtyard Inn by Marriott at the Cal Ripkin Stadium in Aberdeen, MD, and enjoy maid service, continental breakfast, free tapas Thurs-Sun, gym, and watch free youth travel baseball games every night.

  But you'd rather buy a house or whatever. pic.twitter.com/19JOgNc6aN

  — Nicholas Carrigg (@nicholascarrigg) March 9, 2026

• IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers Resigns Amid Flight Chaos

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