News and notes from around the interweb:
- Transportation Secretary’s daughter goes off on TSA. I’m not sure why she’s going through a body scanner (she’d presumably have PreCheck – though she could have been a random selectee).
I nearly missed my flight this morning after the TSA made me wait 15 minutes for a pat-down because I’m pregnant and didn’t feel like getting radiation exposure from their body scanner.
The agents were passive-aggressive, rude, and tried to pressure me and another pregnant woman into just walking through the scanner because it’s “safe.” After finally getting the absurdly invasive pat-down, I barely made my flight. All this for an unconstitutional agency that isn’t even good at its job. Perhaps things would have gone more smoothly if I’d handed over my biometric data to a random private company (CLEAR). Then I could enjoy the special privilege of waiting in a shorter line to be treated like a terrorist in my own country.
Is this freedom? Travel, brought to you by George Orwell—and the privilege of convenience based solely on your willingness to surrender biometric data and submit to radiation exposure? The “golden age of transportation” cannot begin until the TSA is gone.
I nearly missed my flight this morning after the TSA made me wait 15 minutes for a pat-down because I’m pregnant and didn’t feel like getting radiation exposure from their body scanner. The agents were passive-aggressive, rude, and tried to pressure me and another pregnant woman…
— Evita Duffy-Alfonso (@evitaduffy_1) December 18, 2025
She argues that Kristi Noem is weak – that her dad would fix things if he were in charge:
He isn’t in charge of TSA. TSA is under DHS, which is run by Kristi Noem. If he did have TSA, he’d radically limit it and lobby Congress to abolish it.
— Evita Duffy-Alfonso (@evitaduffy_1) December 18, 2025
TSA, by the way, says their scanners use millimeter wave technology not radiation.
- When you finally go to redeem your Delta miles, and you’re quoted 990,000 SkyPesos one-way for one passenger in business class.
- Amenities.
Asiana's "mask service": Flight attendants pampering with facial masks personally mid flight? it's genius for dry cabin air. Better than amenity kits from Emirates or Singapore..
Be honest… would you actually get this service if it was available ? pic.twitter.com/0jjSaC2gEz— Fahad Naim (@Fahadnaimb) December 17, 2025
- Hyatt will pay Texas over $1 million to settle charges of deceptive pricing over resort fees.
- I absolutely love United’s advertising – whether in New York or Denver. They don’t shy away from making an argument, and taking on competitors. They’ve brought back the taxi ads hammering home the point about Newark’s convenience versus JFK. This isn’t milquetoast – it’s a case for their product over competitors. (We can quibble with the claims, or what it leaves out about the ways Newark is affected by air traffic control and weather. But it’s bold and I love this.)
- United is expanding course-style primary meal service starting January 15 not just 3,900+ mile segments. Standard flow: hot towel → pre-meal drink → appetizer/salad cart → entrée → dessert cart.
- Passenger “Unleashes Racist Tirade And Violence At Cambodia Airport”
- Expansion of American Airlines Airbus A321XLR service:
Thanks, Gary. Just a brief comment on the point that “TSA, by the way, says their scanners use millimeter wave technology not radiation”: While I appreciate that you are simply repeating what the TSA says, from an engineering perspective, this is not exactly correct. The reality is that “millimeter wave technology” is generally referred to as “electromagnetic radiation”. For sure it is true that it is non-ionizing radiation, but it is considered to be “electromagnetic radiation” nonetheless. As a result, Evita Duffy-Alfonso cannot be written off as clueless, the fact that she didn’t want her baby exposed to electromagnetic radiation in the Extremely High Frequency (EHF) band of electromagnetic radiation seems reasonable to me.
@ Really, Gary? Delta thing is dumber than dumb.
Huh, so, Evita thought she was in the ‘in’ group, but, found out the hard way, that she is still very much with the rest of us, especially with a name like ‘Alfonso’ on the boarding pass… maybe, just maybe, instead of absurdly calling for the abolishment of anything and everything that upsets you, we should try to make things better for everyone, not just the super-rich or influential. Or, yeah, fine, ignore that noise… ‘golden age’…and ‘great’ again… (@Michael Mainello, am I doing the ‘talking points’ correctly? ‘Re-educate’ us!)
Why is the Hyatt resort fee $1 million settlement buried? This should be a front page, standalone article.
Another foot soldier in the idiocy that is America.
The agency needs a serious overhaul. It’s mostly a federal jobs program. Scanning could be done quicker by AI and there would be no need for PreCheck, no large liquids, Clear, etc. A fourth of the staff could be used to do double checks on what the AI rejects.
Ms Duffy Alfonso is just discovering the cabinet is staffed by unqualified people? Huh. Best wishes on the new baby and Pro Tip: don’t take medical advice from bobby.
@Nick Thomas — Check out Gary’s ‘privacy policy’ which includes this fun one: “This site is for entertainment purposes only.” Also, see his Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: “…may earn compensation when a customer clicks…” (purposely without full context). So, to answer your question, Nick, I’d go with, probably… ‘reasons.’ LOL.