News and notes from around the interweb:
- Rome will start charging tourists a €2 (~US$2.30) fee to access to the stone steps at the iconic Trevi Fountain starting February 1 in order to raise €6.5 million (US$7.6 million) a year. The fee might also reduce crowds. (The surrounding square remains free, and Roman residents won’t pay.) (HT: @crucker)
- No one wants to stay at Excalibur, even at a $14 base room rate.
This is the Excalibur hotel check-in area right now. You can book a room tonight for about $58, including resort fee. pic.twitter.com/MUIVoptKcn
— Las Vegas Locally (@LasVegasLocally) December 18, 2025
- Yuck.
@united my wife’s “fresh silverware” in first class on the pdx to Houston flight today. How the heck does this happen? pic.twitter.com/CqTmYTeKes
— jellison33 (@jellison33) December 18, 2025
- Okey dokey.
- The first trip report I saw of the American Airlines Airbus A321XLR inaugural flight in business class
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has turned himself into Queer Eye For The Straight Guy. He’s critiqued passengers wearing pajamas to the airport, but signs off on it for this baby. What about the woman’s attire here, though?
Acceptable!⚖️ https://t.co/PfEqkZWGL4
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) December 19, 2025
glad they finally do that. nothing should be free on tourism.
So if I’m reading the XLR review correctly-
– the tray table was not level and the laptop kept sliding down (uh, wow)
– the reviewer thought he would feel claustrophobic with the doors closed
– seat very firm (typical)
– monitor has to be stowed during service (as we know) but IFE good even if 4K screen only had one 4K movie option
– bluetooth pairing did not work
– flagship first was better (obviously)
– clear upgrade for business passengers (not sure why being claustrophobic is a clear upgrade, but can’t argue with all aisle access I guess).
– Interestingly the reviewer noted that the salmon option was the usual greens and grains bowl with optional salmon, not the seared atlantic salmon that the picture of the menu suggested? Complained about not wanting lactose but then said the cheese plate was “solid” – not sure if that’s just an assessment from looking at it or if the reviewer ate the cheese.
– you can apparently request ice packs and heated water bottles for back pain (I guess the reviewer left their IcyHot at home). That’s nice.
I guess that’s all… well… about what is expected. It’s good, not great. Would have been nice to see the wine page of the menu.
A few articles say 5 sites are gonot ing to charge 2 Euros but none say which sites, except the Trevi Fountain and one museum in Rome.
I think 2 Euros is not worth it. The charge is only for the platform and during the day and evening
A preview of what someone else was having on the silverware.
Peter the negative Nancy paid anti-AA shill went out of his way to filter through all the positives on that article. Give it a rest.
@Now way – look, we can all write articles being impressed by shiny new things, or you can do the review that The Flip Flop Traveler just did on youtube of the new Park Hyatt in Kuala Lumpur and lift the very thin veil and expose the ridiculous number of problems that exist at PH’s 50th location. So fine – if you just want to look at the new XLR and say “oooh, shiny new plane, finally AA has a shiny new plane” – great! But shiny new things come with problems and also age. The 321Ts were once shiny, new and lauded also. And this XLR is going to age into a plane that remains excellent for cargo, has no MCE that is usable by families or others who are unable to sit in an exit row (but there are IFE screens with 31″ of pitch so – happy days are here again? That’s seriously all it takes?), has an excellent PE seat, and has… a good but probably not great business class.
Do I think the monitor during service issue is the end of the world? No. But you have to get the details right sometimes. You have to have a tray table that is level. You should not be serving cheap Cava on your new premium transcon route (iTripReport has the menu – and preordered the seared salmon, not the salmon and grains the reviewer incorrectly wrote about, and noted that AA’s catering was pretty good).
I fly AA a bunch. I have status with them, and if AA’s 2025 wrapped is to be believed, I’m in AA’s top 10% of travelers from New York. Yay? Nothing wrong with looking past the shiny bright lights and exposing the good, but not great, reality underneath. Many of us are rooting for AA because who on earth wants to go to EWR, you know, ever, and it’s nice for Delta to have some competition. The XLR may be a step in the right direction, but looking at this plane 5 years from now (when others such as United will have it configured with loads of extra legroom seating, for instance), it may start to feel quite “mid”.