News and notes from around the interweb:
- Frontier Airlines Turns Away Late Passenger With Medieval-Style “Drawbridge” Defense
- TSA refuses to admit its stupid shoe rule never made sense
- Yes, United did this first (they were smart enough to get pandemic-era concessions in exchange). but employees over customers is such a bad look. ‘If you want first, pay for it’ but they market upgrades as a reason to keep buying tickets over and over from the same airline, those are rarer than they’ve ever been, and a customer sees the employee take the seat at the gate when they’re next on the list they think they’ve made a bad decision with that loyalty.
Why be loyal to @AmericanAir when they prioritize pilots (those paid to be on the plane) for first class upgrades and not the AAdvantage elites? (Those that pay to be on the airplane?) @AlliedPilots your negotiating benefits that will have your pilots out of work. @Delta @united pic.twitter.com/LIZe0wYzaY
— Jeffery Spencer (@jefferyaspencer) July 16, 2025
- Cyber crooks are increasingly using stolen credit and loyalty cards to sell vacations at discount prices, with ‘really good customer service’ “Airline loyalty accounts with high mile balances can sell for up to $700” (HT: crucker)
- Wish this was airside! The terminal 8 dining options today are so bad…
- “China’s commercial airlines are limited to using 20% of its airspace, giving rise to an average route curvature of 17% compared to 5% in the US and Europe” (HT: Marginal Revolution)
From the New York Post:
[George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan calculated, based on conservative assumptions, that the shoe rule had consumed “almost 30,000 years of life” in the United States.
By that measure, Caplan suggested, Reid, despite his ineptitude, qualified as the “most successful” anti-American terrorist ever.]
The Frontier low IQ person will have his ticket revoked and likely be arrested. Can’t cure stupid.
Most of what TSA makes zero sense. It’s theater for the masses.
Prithee, mind the jetbridge, my liege!
@jns — Isn’t saying ‘George Mason’ and ‘conservative’ kinda redundant? Bah!
@George Romey — Not sure about this whole ‘IQ’ thing, because plenty of folks who know better still misbehave. I’m with you, like, such disruptions are not cool, regardless.
He was the luckiest passenger on the Frontier flight. Not being able to get on a Frontier flight is so much better than the alternative
Frontier is SUCH AN AWFUL AIRLINE. They literally go out of there way to infuriate the customer.
The jet bridge was still attached and the main cabin door was still open. They could have let that poor guy on the plane no problem. Frontier claims they behave like this because they have to protect their on-time performance. However they literally have the worst on-time performance in the entire industry. It hovers around 60% on time which is embarrassing.
@joe smith & @Joe Smith — Look at this coincidence! You fellas know each other? Bah…
I’m not siding with Frontier here. They simply go out of their way to hassle passengers. I literally write Seat 31B, but I book away from them because there’s no way to beat the house and their “all-in” fare is never cheaper. It doesn’t seem like this is a solid business model either, because they’re losing money. In the meantime, you’ll find me in basic economy on one of the major airlines, for around the same price.
So a.passenger whose job / employer does not pay for first class complaints about a worker / employer who does? Does this passenger also complains when McKinsey consultants “take away” “his” upgrade, which he paid $0 for?
A definition of a true loser!.