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
The people in California have clearly voted for this. How anyone could see anything redeemable about Newsom is beyond me.
The people mover train into the horseshoe at LAX is the real scandal here. Wildly out of control cost and it still doesn’t operate. LA pols and bureaucrats are completely corrupt and/or incompetent. At least the corrupt ones do their jobs.
@George Nathan Romey, @Joseph – 100% agree with both comments. @1990 will make some comment about workers and livable wages, blah blah. This same council will vote for reduced fares for the poor or some other garbage. This ultimately hurts the working class who will continue to flee Commiefornia.
The Democratic Supermajoity in California can’t build any train to save their life. LAX, my home airport, is an embarrassment. We pay more taxes and fees than any other city/county/state and get nothing in return. Just fraud and grift.
The cost and delays of the train at LAX are truly insane, but the fee hike is not. It does not go into effect until the train begins operating. At that point, you can take a train that operates every 2 minutes to/from the primary rideshare pickup point, so charging extra once they’ve removed the sh*ttle is punitive only to those who can’t spare a few extra minutes to ride it. The fee is commensurate with other markets and promotes less traffic in the congested horseshoe – and if you’ve ever spent 20 minutes trying to get to your terminal from the airport entrance you’ll know why that’s a good thing. So yeah, as someone who lives in LA and will be subject to these fees, I support it, even though the path to get here was absurd.
I thought they were claiming the LAX People Mover will be ready for the World Cup.
Airlines should not allow commuters. Crews are exhausted before their workday begins and increases the number of reserves for missed flights. Some cities require employees to live within 30 miles of their work location.
@Darin, that’s assuming the train even operates, ever.
To @Mark’s point, the people mover is now almost $1 Billion over budget, and has been delayed yet again to late 2026 – so no World Cup. If I had to wager, it would be lucky to have it operational by the Summer Olympics, if that even happens. There is so much waste, fraud, and abuse going on with our tax dollars. It’s nuts. Then people keep voting for the party that enables it.
The “bus to the rideshare lot” is nothing new in airports with major ongoing construction (see JFK). There are often ways around these shuttle buses (at least in NYC, you can take the AirTrain to T8 for taxi/rideshare, or a different bus to Lefferts A train, then $3 for the Subway), and for LAX, I’ve avoided the LAX-it shuttle by taking UberBlack/LyftLux (but it is more expensive).
@Michael Mainello — It’s a California-story, so, inevitably right-wingers, like yourself and @George Romey, are gonna do a ‘TDS’-equivalent freak-out against it. As for the specific issue, sure, I do care (as should we all) about the affected consumers, here, and, yes, also workers, whether the rideshare drivers, at the airport, and those completing the construction. Hope there can be an affordable, efficient outcome here, but it will likely take more time. (Like, JFK may take until 2030.)
@George Nathan Rome. Not to get into a debate but can you briefly explain how Governor Newsom is in anyway responsible for the local construction project at LAX?
@jsm — (whispering: this is not a very serious place, nor is George, so understand that he’s got Fox on 24/7 full-volume, and it’s really hard for him to appreciate nuance… anyway, don’t worry bout’t.)
@Dave, the fee increase is dependent on the train operating. No train, no fee increase. We can all rant and rave about the inefficiencies of government projects and how poorly this one was managed, but if we’re talking about this fee itself… it’s perfectly reasonable when (and I guess in your mind if) LAX finally does have an effective system of moving people quickly in and out of a small, congested space.
@Darin: The proposal would charge you $6 for rideshare pickup even after you take the 2-mile detour east on the train.
Pro tip: Consider walking to Sepulveda and calling a rideshare from the Hyatt. Sadly, all public bus service anywhere near that intersection was deleted in mid-2025.
@1990 – As usual no substance just vitriol and hyperbole.
Hilton and Marriott hotel points are near worthless. Now a free agent, booking via the Chase portal and collecting UR points instead.
@Michael Mainello — “The lady doth protest too much, methinks”
They need more money to fund that corrupt train ride.
I much prefer @Peter’s usual thoughtful takes on here, over whatever this @Petex-thing is.
@1990 – I would say “more hot air” per usual, but that would imply you are alive, breathing and thinking.
@Michael Mainello — “As usual no substance just vitriol and hyperbole.”
CA resident here. Two things can be true at the same time: LA World Airports is a corrupt and incompetent body, and I would gladly vote for Newsom (who has nothing to do with LAX) over some asswipe like Abbott or DeSantis. I’d also rather swallow razor blades than live in TX fwiw.
@Brandote – I have spent quite a bit of time in both states and find them great places to visit. The cost of living is quite reasonable. Why do believe California is such a great place?
@1990 – Ooh the copy and paste move. You are, reaching new heights of intellectual laziness.
@Michael Mainello — Thank you for your attention to this matter.
@1990 – Keep showing off your (lack of) substance. The “D” Party loves you.
@Michael Mainello — “I love the poorly educated” … “the most loyal people.”
@Darin – I understand that. But as the train gets delayed (likely again) I’m sure the tax and spend city will implement it anyway. They love to spend OUR money.
That said, as a regular user of LAX as you are, the situation is a mess and needs to be improved. I don’t think they need to tax people more. They need to fix the root cause of the problem.
1) They took away TWO lanes to run the “LAXIT” busses with the promise they will be quick and get people to the rideshare lot. Instead, there are now two lanes that are generally completely empty, while the other arrivals lanes are totally packed. And the LAXIT busses run with terrible frequency. They need to open these lanes up to more traffic to relieve pressure on the existing open lanes.
2) They also stopped allowing rideshare drop-offs on the arrivals level. In the mornings, that area is generally wide open, while departures is clogged. This was a stupid decision that they also need to reverse. Instead they just continue to double down on their stupidity.
@1990 – “I love the poorly educated” … “the most loyal people.”
You got it, now get USAID or other government agency to gift you few million and you can print it on T-Shirts, Coffee Mugs etc. and sell it on your blue website or amazon. We know you won’t use your own money, but you will keep any profits.
@Michael Mainello — “Smart people don’t like me, you know?” Epstein.
@1990 – “Smart people don’t like me, you know?” Epstein.
That explains why the dems love him and our current duly elected president blocked him from his club and turned him into the police.
@Michael Mainello — If there’s nothing to hide, ‘our current duly elected president’ should testify under oath, and the DOJ should release all remaining files, including those with himself in them, in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act (H.R.4405), unless, of course, he’s hiding something… uh oh…
@1990 – Come on are you saying that the dems had access to these files for 8 years and sat on incriminating information that could destroy him? So far he is the only pol that has directed them to be released.
Are you really daft or is this an act?
@Michael Mainello — Sounds like he has “nothing to hide” then… time to testify under oath! Nice!
@1990 – Found this info after I sent the last one. But then you know all this and still support the guy. His dealings should make you run from your party, but no you are still loyal.
“Richard Kahn, a co-executor of Epstein’s estate and the financier’s longtime accountant, appeared before the House Oversight Committee where he answered questions about Epstein’s complex financial empire and the powerful figures connected to it.
According to Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY), Kahn’s testimony delivered a key revelation: he saw no financial transactions involving President Donald Trump or any member of Trump’s family.”
@1990 – You funny guy.
@Michael Mainello — Teehee.
@Michael Mainello — I don’t think it’s merely the ‘financial’ involvement that most victims are concerned about… *cough* (She bit his ‘what’??)
@1990 – Proof, did the dems bury it, miss it, or it wasn’t even there.
LAX traffic situation is bad because of Obamacare, Dems, Pedos, Newsom, Hunter Biden, Soros, the French (they surrendered), Immigrants, and anyone that opposes President Trump. This is a tax increase meant to suppress white freedom and christianity and turn our schools into government run nurseries for the Chinese Communists Pedophiles (CCP). . Anyone that disagrees should have their citizenship removed and deported to France (unless france is ok now if their right wing side is winning elections in which case somewhere else).
But don’t worry- No one will live in LA in 5 years so there won’t be a need for LAX- homeless people can’t fly and everyone else will be living in Texas.
Did I miss any other FoxNews Talking points?.. Im auditioning soon…
@Farbod Rahaghi – Is this @1990? BTW, it is obvious you have never watched Fox, those are MSNOW formerly MSDNC talking points about Fox News.
@Michael Mainello — Believe it or not, I really do only use the ‘1990’ alias across the various blogs. There’s a guy at OMAAT who does impersonate me and others, but you can usually tell who’s who based on their syntax and other word choices/stances. Bah!
Whenever maga nutty boys rants about California especially the clever ones /s calling it commiefornia I tell them the same thing. You’re all talk. put up or shut up. If you hate CA prove it by throwing away your “California made” cellphone. Throw away that mac book. Stop googling or streaming YouTube or Netflix…. Can’t do it can you. Now let me leave you with this thought. You NEED California. More than any other state. You should complain to your own state’s governor on why your state can’t achieve better things. Are things in ca expensive? Yup. Do I care? Well considering the average salary for a software engineer in san Francisco is closing in on$200k, I’m not going to worry about it. Do I sound full of myself. To you, you betcha.
@Bob – Good Rant. Now why is California experiencing a net outflow of citizens and many businesses closing or relocating to more business friendly states? Why is homeless population growing? Why is San Francisco the poop capitol?
I flew out of LAX less than two weeks ago. For all of the talk of it getting worse, it was pretty much the same as always. I took the FlyAway from Van Nuys. Same as usual timewise but now costs a bit more. At the Tom Bradley Terminal, the check in was fairly quick because I had arrived early. TSA was reasonably quick. It was better because of no longer having to take off shoes. The gate was actually reasonably close this time.
@Mainello Why is it the 4th largest economy in the world?
@jns- agreed- LAX has gotten better lately for some reason, at least the last two times I’ve picked up or been dropped off.
@Bob- my pet peeve is the people parked along the curb at LAX, waiting for their pickups to come out. Curbside security needs to enforce the “no waiting” rule!
I never imagined that one of the benefits of retirement would be never having to travel through or to JFK or LAX, where charging extra or relocating rideshare is a pleasure to them.
Who, in their right mind, thinks living in a hotel room that forces them to have every meal at a restaurant is a good deal?
@ George. Not the question I asked. The Roman Empire and Great Britain were powerful at one time. Swing and a miss.
LOL- were countries better off without Roman or British rule? Basically, you want to be Uganda, in the 1960’s- good luck with your Idi Amin!
You know, at this rate people willl just start hopping on hotel shuttles at LAX (again). I don’t see much enforcement of requiring folks to have a reservation, and there are absolutely times I would just pull out a $20 or two not to have to head to the rideshare lot on foot with a load of luggage in the face of a nosebleed fare.
@George – Come on I thought you were smarter than this. I guess not. Hopefully you had been indulging in adult beverages and should of stayed away from the keyboard.
Use your brain: “why is California experiencing a net outflow of citizens and many businesses closing or relocating to more business friendly states? Why is homeless population growing? Why is San Francisco the poop capitol?”
LAWA/LA World Airports needs to own their problems here on the APM
But those of you hear – I’m sorry – did I miss Newsom being on the LAWA/LAX board? Really is this on him? This was board selected across multiple vendors – LINX Consortium won for this public-private partnership. LINX was to own any contingencies they didn’t cover – but as with anything in LA, 1950s UNDOCUMENTED construction of utilities and such was basically the major main issue. Multiple sites on main construction had to deal with 100’s of said issues.
Not siding with LAX as they screwed the pooch doing this Public/Private partnership thing vs managing the project themselves. They managed the LAX/TBIT Terminal and the Satellite and those were delivered on-time.
But “CALIFORNIA IS BROKEN BECAUSE OF NEWSOM” – just stop it – Some of you need to touch grass.
@NPS-CA – LAX may not be broken because of Newsom, but the laws, rules and regs passed by an unchecked state government does contribute. The state itself is very broken going from a large surplus to a deficit (yes the federal government is running a large deficit, orange man bad etc). Would a different (maybe smarter) governor have done a better job, who knows, but we will only see one party rule in California unless mail-in voting is removed and the SAVE act passed.