A full-time TSA officer at Boston Logan is accused of collecting $47,526 in pandemic unemployment over 16 months while still working at the airport. Prosecutors say he repeatedly filed weekly certifications claiming he had no income, and he’s now charged with wire fraud.
Cases like this have surfaced repeatedly among TSA screeners, highlighting how pandemic programs prioritized speed and access—and made fraud easier to attempt and slower to catch.
A Marriott Titanium elite says a prepaid “Sonder by Marriott” booking on Marriott.com left him out $5,000+ after Sonder’s bankruptcy—while Marriott offered just 40,000 points and told him to call his bank. The problem: the bank’s system blocks disputes after 120 days. Here’s why that’s wrong for future travel—and the script to fix it.
Passenger Ankit Dewan says an Air India Express captain confronted him in the staff security line at Delhi Terminal 1 after he objected to crew cutting ahead, insulted him as “anpadh,” and then struck him near the frisking area, leaving him bloodied. Dewan also claims he was pressured to sign a letter agreeing not to pursue the incident so his family wouldn’t miss their flight.
Passengers boarded a Cancún-bound flight expecting a routine departure, but the captain instead barricaded himself in the cockpit and refused to operate the flight. He told those onboard the airline owed him more than five months of unpaid wages and per diems, turning a labor dispute into a 60–90 minute standoff.
Marriott has added in-app tipping, routing payments through a third-party processor—an escalation beyond the QR-code tip prompts that have spread through hotels since the pandemic. This isn’t really about guest convenience; it’s about shifting more of employee compensation onto customers so hotels can staff up while keeping wage costs (and owner expenses) down.
A Fairfield Inn near Kansas City Airport is listing a city-required $3 arena fee—and then, starting with January bookings, adding a separate $1.50 “Destination Marketing Fee.” Kansas City doesn’t list any such charge as a government fee, and nearby hotels don’t show it, making this look like a new, mandatory junk fee designed to split the true price off the room rate.
Passengers on a London-bound flight out of Málaga say they watched a family wheel an elderly woman onboard and insist she was already dead—after relatives told staff she was “just tired.” The airline disputes that, saying she boarded alive with a fit-to-fly certificate but died onboard before takeoff, forcing the aircraft back to stand and triggering an all-day delay.
Rome will begin charging tourists €2 (about $2.30) starting February 1 to step up onto the stone steps at the Trevi Fountain, while the surrounding square remains free and residents won’t pay. Also in today’s roundup: an empty Excalibur check-in even with rock-bottom rates, a United first-class “fresh silverware” photo that’s anything but, the first A321XLR inaugural trip report, and Sean Duffy’s latest airport-attire commentary.
A group of students and parents showed up at a Florida airport to confront a travel agent accused of scamming families out of a long-planned Europe trip. As he arrived under escort, the students yelled “Scumbag” while he came down the arrivals escalator—an encounter families described as cathartic, even as many are still out significant money.
Passengers on an Air Congo Boeing 737-800 reportedly sat onboard for hours after landing at Kindu Airport because ground staff couldn’t produce stairs to deplane the aircraft. Eventually, frustrated travelers began exiting on their own—jumping from the forward door down to the tarmac in a non-emergency situation, a stark breakdown in basic ground handling and onboard control.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
