News and notes from around the interweb:
- In June I wrote that a consortium of airlines was selling your reservations data to the government and it turns out the practice is even more extensive than realized: 5 billion ticketing records available for searching and more agencies with access – ICE, CBP, ATF, SEC, TSA, State Department, U.S. Marshals, IRS and FBI. ARC registered as a data broker in California because they’d been acting outside of state law.
A data broker owned by the country’s major airlines, including American Airlines, United, and Delta, is selling access to five billion plane ticketing records to the government for warrantless searching and monitoring of peoples’ movements..ARC has previously told the government to not reveal to the public where this passenger data came from, which includes peoples’ names, full flight itineraries, and financial details.
- Jeffrey Eisenberg, a former managing director of operations for strategy and performance at United Airlines, has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against United Airlines alleging retaliation and wrongful termination after raising concerns about corruption (conflict of interest with a vendor) and safety violations (retiring key software without replacing it, safety risk assessment issues, non-compliance with FAA flight attendant staffing rules).
In the small world department, I worked with Eisenberg 23 years ago in a role completely unrelated to airlines and travel. I knew he left for US Airways, but don’t think I knew where he went after that.
- Qatar Airways will give up to 40% bonus on transfers from Citi through October 15. The bonus will post by November 30. That’s actually a little tempting.
- Marriott’s new partnership with Lufthansa Miles & More gives Bonvoy Gold to Senator and HON Circle members.
Meanwhile, Marriott stays earn 40 Miles & More status points apiece, up to 120 status points per calendar year. Better than a hole in the head (a loch in kop), as my grandfather used to say!
- American and Delta suspended employees over vile social media posts following Charlie Kirk’s assassination. United has done so as well. I don’t love this, and especially don’t like the government’s involvement here, outside of pilots where fitness to fly issues may be involved.
It is the right of every American to feel safe and free of political hate in our airspace.
Thank you @Americanair, @united, and @Delta for suspending employees who praised Charlie Kirk’s assassination. @USDOT applauds you for taking the first step in sending the right message.… https://t.co/IToGncLQMv
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) September 15, 2025
- TIL:
The Pony Express, one of the most iconic transportation networks ever created, only lasted 18 months.
The rider, usually a teenager, would go 75-100 miles (switching tired horses about every 10-15 miles) before handing off the letters to another rider on horseback.
From:… pic.twitter.com/lt2Z3lTod2
— Craig Fuller ⚓️ (@FreightAlley) September 15, 2025
OK, I’ll bite.
If you think it’s OK that a person is killed because of their opinion, you shouldn’t cry when you get fired for yours.
(saw that online)
Wow, small world indeed.
TWO roundups today? How wonderfully decadent (happy new season tonight, @1990!). Here’s to a third before the end of the day.
@L737 — All 10 episodes at once! ‘Oh, sirrah. How deliciously absurd.’
@Thing 1 — So, you’re advocating against free speech and for cancel culture? Bad take. I’d say, honor Charlie by being for free speech, even offensive speech, against violence, and not for canceling anyone. C’mon, let’s try to be consistent.
@1990 @737 Wow. Literal binge VieWing!
@1990 – Hey, you guys wrote the cancel-culture rules. I’m just living in the reality the Progressives created.
As progressives said time and time and time again, words are violence, “free speech” only applies to the government, not private companies. Okie dokie.
+1 for Thing 1
@Thing 1
COTD & +1
Hey, if you take away their hypocrisy? They’d have no guiding philosophy whatsoever.
@cr — Epic pun! Hulu’s probably gonna crash tonight. Bah!
@Thing 1, @Tom Dually, @Mike P — Sadly, no one side has a monopoly on hypocrisy. (No, no, just the radical leftists are baddies! Only the libertarians are totally consistent…) So, that’s why above I advocate for actual free speech and to reject cancel culture. The problem is that means you’d have to support your perceived opponents ability to respond (without seeking to ruin their livelihood, etc.)
Freedom of travel was nice while it lasted. Welcome to the police state. Might as well get them Stasi uniforms.
@DaveS — Do we get extra Biscoff if we report on our seat-neighbors? I hear the guy in 12B is a dissident. Now, where’s my cookies?
A couple of decades ago, a private company selling your records to anybody would’ve been a massive deal. Selling those records to the government would’ve been headline news.
But in this age, as evidence by the comments, people don’t really care. They’re OK with sacrificing privacy as long as Alexa can tell me them where to eat.
I can only imagine the horrific outcry if Biden’s administration bought all this data. This from the people who don’t even think you have to register your gun. My travel habits are none of the government’s business.
@Thing 1: If you think it’s OK that a person is killed because of their opinion, you shouldn’t cry when you get fired for yours.
Good but it should be noted that if the people being fired were not fired for having an opinion but rather expressing that opinion in a public way and the consequences for doing that. If you work for a corporation, you have to be cognizant of the fact that the corporation has rules about expressing opinions that are not the official opinion of the corporation (an official opinion should be expressed by an official spokesperson). These are not new rules. They have been in place for a long time. Alienating a lot of your customer base is not a good step for a corporation so the firings had to take place. To be sure, they should also fire anyone who expresses an opinion in a public way that the assassinated person was a great and perfect person as that would also alienate a lot of the customer base but a different cohort.
@jns — So, I’mm’a guess, in 2025, ‘red hats’ are just fine, but ‘watermelon’ pins are not? I get your point, but, unfortunately, there are rabid partisans on here who may not be able to handle the bothsidesisms.
Government should worry more about all today left wing radicals flying airliners celebrating left wing terrorism against people in this country.
@1990
What goes around comes around. The pendulum has swung and the American people have no more tolerance for the radicalized left.
@Walter Barry — There’s hardly a ‘left’ in the USA, today, or generally.
There’s a centrist corporatist party (D) that push out anything left of Mitt Romney (see 2016, 2020, etc.) in favor of geriatric 80-year-olds who just want status quo or to appease the right (see ACA not including the public option.)
Anyway, following your metaphor, does the pendulum stop swinging now, or… is there finally gonna be an actual ‘left’ victory after all this? Thanks for the hope.
Just saying, be careful with overreach; that might come back to bite ya later. Watch out. You’ll get a President AOC and a VP Crockett! Baaaaah.
The story about the Pony Express has questionable numbers. From Wikipedia: “Despite the subsidy, the Pony Express was a financial failure. It grossed $90,000 and lost $200,000.”
@1990: “There’s a centrist corporatist party (D) that push out anything left of Mitt Romney (see 2016, 2020, etc.) in favor of geriatric 80-year-olds who just want status quo or to appease the right (see ACA not including the public option.)” Huh? The Democrats ***hated*** Mitt Romney. Remember, he was a racist, fascist, bigot? Remember how they went after him ***as a misogynist*** because he had a long list of women to appoint to high level positions?
“Just saying, be careful with overreach; that might come back to bite ya later. Watch out. You’ll get a President AOC and a VP Crockett! Baaaaah.” And that’s exactly how we got Trump. Dems successfully killed the power of the moderate wing of the Republican party by showing that no matter how “nice, polite, and reasonable” a person the Republicans put up, they were always going to be a fascist, racist, Nazi for the Dems and media.
So here we are.
@Thing 1 — You’re not wrong, about Mitt, and generally.
In 2012, yes, the Democrats were not in-favor of Romney; then #45/47 came along and captured the old Republican party. Now, those Democrats would love a Romney-style old-school Republican, but that party is gone. “Binders full of women…” Bah! (An objectively funny gaff; and relatively harmless, like the bee-yaw! ‘Dean scream’ in 2004.)
On where we go from here, yes, perhaps #45/47 will ‘end’ the moderate wing of the Democratic Party. Personally, I’m less interested in the ‘culture war’ nonsense, and mostly interested in the Progressive economic side of the so-called ‘left’ (think, pro-worker and consumer protections, yes, unions, and also, universal healthcare, the raising minimum wage, incentives for affordable housing, paid family leave, etc.) I’d imagine that is literal economic ‘treason’ to some of you… eh.
So, where we go?
the right’s efforts to get political opponents fired from their jobs are definitely NOT ‘Christian’ or even consistent with conservative values. Conservatives indulging in this kind of ‘cancel culture’ were in fact betraying their own principles.
People on the right need to be stronger, not complete hypocrites.