News and notes from around the interweb:
- Rideshare driver uses AI to fake damage to their vehicle, rider gets a bill but notices the photo has the ‘Gemini’ logo. Lyft sided with the passenger and banned the driver.
- Some American AAdvantage members have found business class Flagship lounge passes available if they claim a promotion in their account, with no action required other than registering. I did not have this option.
- The DFW airport ps terminal is about to open. Miami’s ps terminal opens June 30. Expensive, but American’s ConciergeKey members get a single free visit – skip the terminal, go through private TSA, get driven to the plane.
- The new American Airlines maintenance team for fixing broken seats can’t come soon enough.
@AmericanAir Hi American Airlines, I’m currently on flight AA915 from Miami to Bogotá on May 19 in First Class and my tray table is marked inoperative and unusable. The crew is aware, but I wanted to document the issue since it impacted the seat experience. Could someone assist? pic.twitter.com/dTf1LdEiMY
— Alejandro Pichardo (@ACPMiami) May 19, 2026
@AmericanAir completely unusable tray table on my flight today, not cool. pic.twitter.com/qGtidkpLDO
— Holly Gilmartin (@hollygilmartin) May 19, 2026
- Never lose your sense of wonder!
- Hyatt moved a hotel from category 4 to 5 that wasn’t included in their announcement. It’s minor, but come on. Weren’t the 136 category changes they announced enough? And did they even really need to do this, when each category now has 5 price levels?
- One Mile at a Time and Loyalty Lobby looked at the Emirates Skywards devaluation and found it was about 15%. Business class one-way awards are now half the price of roundtrips, which makes sense, they didn’t need to maintain higher prices for one ways with the overall price increase.
Skywards is a program with so little value that I haven’t paid this much mind. Japan Airlines remains better for Emirates business class redemptions. Emirates matters for pricey first class redemptions and for upgrades from business class to first class.
- Jessica Simpson flew first class while her kids sat in coach enroute to Hawaii. On the flight she ran into her ex Nick Lachey for the first time in 20 years. Now she explains it: “My mom bought those tickets”
Jessica Simpson is finally explaining why her kids were riding economy while she was chilling up front in first class during that awkward flight with ex Nick Lachey 👀 https://t.co/vy6isDqtGY
Credit: Backgrid pic.twitter.com/WxIpJouJNE
— TMZ (@TMZ) May 21, 2026
- Ryanair eliminated its loyalty program after just 8 months claiming it was too generous (there’s precedent for that, IHG shut down its original program for that reason, only it was true). The real reason: nobody cared. Well, easyJet will launch a program next year.
- Capella Hotels wants to compete in the luxury tier with Aman, Rosewood and Belmond ‘within a year’ (Skift) The great thing is that they have a loyalty program (they’re part of GHA Discovery).
I can probably only afford Capella Tufu Bay in Sanya in the off-season, though. I’d love to stay at the Bangkok and Ubud properties. I look longingly at Sydney’s Capella whenever I’m there and stay elsewhere. In some sense I hope they do not succeed branding themselves at the Rosewood level because rates would surely rise, and they are probably today offering a similar product at lower price point.
On the Lyft story, glad they sided with the rider and banned the driver in that case. Scammers gonna scam. Gotta fight back.
On Hyatt, it’s over. This devaluation has been brutal. Closed my Chase card. Cat 1-4 certificates are now basically worthless. Good riddance.
On Capella, good for them. Not sure they’re at Aman-level, but I know Ben at OMAAT can’t say enough good things. So, maybe there’s something to it!
Guessing you meant “Gemini” when you used “Gemeni” regarding the AI-generated photo. What’s a Gary Left no Typo Behind story without at least one error?!
Another thing to look out for when ride hailing. And no, I am not ride sharing when I take Uber.
@jns — Bah! Elon would prefer you call “ride Roman Salute-ing”… *cough*
@ Gary — What is this “Gemeni”? Typo by you or pirated knockoff of Gemini.
About the AI scam, there are tools online that can determine if a photo is genuine or AI generated.
In general, Lyft and Uber are bad companies using desperate people that need money to pay bill and abuse the 1099 contractor status to ensure they get less than minimum wages after all their costs are factored in.
Now, looking at Hyatt, remember who Hyatt belongs to and what this family represent. When the patriarch died they all sued each other to get the bigger share… how predictable! When you add the Epstein link and the mess the governor created, you realize that no good can come from hotels owned by such a bunch of corrupted greedy psychopaths.
@ mike — Indeed, no good came from The Idiot and his family of Idiots.
I’ve come to terms with likely ending my annual quest for Hyatt Globalist status in 2027 after the devaluation was announced. However, after the announcement I made 5 speculative points bookings. I rechecked the pricing after the “devaluation” and one hotel stayed the same, one went up 3.5%, one went up 11%, one went up 25% (only 2K points) and one went down 10%. So, not looking so dire for me yet. These were hotels in categories 1,3,4,6.