News and notes from around the interweb:
- Many travelers use VPNs, but be aware that “because VPNs obscure a user’s true location, and because intelligence agencies presume that communications of unknown origin are foreign, Americans may be inadvertently waiving the privacy protections they’re entitled to under the law.”
Americans reportedly spend billions of dollars each year on commercial VPN services, many of which are offered by foreign-headquartered companies using servers located overseas. According to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, VPNs have the potential to be vulnerable to surveillance by foreign adversaries. While Americans should be warned of these risks, they should also be told if these VPN services, which are advertised as a privacy protection, including by elements of the federal government, could, in fact, negatively impact their rights against U.S. government surveillance.
To that end, we urge you to be more transparent with the American public about whether the use of VPNs can impact their privacy with regard to U.S. government surveillance, and clarify what, if anything, American consumers can do to ensure they receive the privacy protections they are entitled to under the law and Constitution.
- Omni Hotels bought $200 million in distressed debt on The Greenbrier in West Virginia. 28 Presidents have stayed on the property, though the current iteration of the rest was built in 1913 and no sitting President since Eisenhower has gone. It’s the home of Project Greek Island, a bunker built for Congress after the Cuban Missile Crisis which was decommissioned after the Washington Post revealed its existence in 1992.
The property is owned by U.S. Senator and former West Virginia Senator Jim Justice. More on Justice’s ownership of the hotel here.
- Why Bill Franke pushed out Frontier’s CEO, didn’t buy Spirit, and is putting in first class seats but not a real first class product. He also criticizes changes at Southwest Arilines:
They made a lot of changes here recently, and the consumer is uncertain about whether they like or don’t like it. …Southwest has more recently been very traditional in its decision-making.
He thinks consumers love JetBlue but they “either get bigger or be integrated.” He’s talked to them about making an investment but there’s a lot of devil in the details. In concept? Maybe.He’s got airlines in Mexico, South America and Europe but says “I couldn’t drink enough whiskey to survive the politics” of Brazil.
To Franke, the Airbus A321XLR and Abu Dhabi hubs were mistakes at Wizz Air that he was against but didn’t block, though the XLR could make sense if Wizz Air were to fly to the U.S. “Maybe they’re going to do that. ”
- I kind of like that they were honest, actually:
@united Delayed flight caused me to change a connecting flight. I went to the gate to inquire about my checked bag. The flight attendant told me when I asked, “I don’t care about your bag” right to my face. Was some of the most belittling customer service. Was shocked
— Eric (@Eric15030611) April 3, 2026
- Lifetime ban. But at least they weren’t clipping their toenails over the tray?
@AmericanAir is this normal and acceptable? AA1338. Your flight attendant was about as hospitable as a MTA bus driver and couldn’t be bothered to stop this behavior. And this is during meal service. pic.twitter.com/kqyyHph5ng
— Jason (@JasonDWeinstein) April 3, 2026
- An app that compares Uber, Waymo, Lyft and Curbed prices
- I kind of like that they were honest, actually:
@ Gary — Well, what’s worse, exposing my banking and loyalty program passwords to thieves in airport lounges, airplanes and hotels, or waiving my right to privacy?
@ Gene – Why the knee-jerk reaction? Gary didn’t lecture you on what to do. He only relayed info. Your preference whether to trust the government is your own business. Nobody cares about it.
Fun Fact: Unless you have a very specific use case such as remote access to company systems, you probably don’t need a VPN. Ordinary TLS and DoH are more than adequate.
@ Mike — Why the personal attack? What was offensive about my comment? I was simply pointing out that not using a VPN may not be a great option, either.
Trying to process the sale of the Greenbriar, a beautiful resort. The Justice family really could never afford it. I’ve only been a guest at a few Omni hotels, I’m not sure how this level of luxury will fit with Omni.
@ Gene – Sorry, I misinterpreted your comment.
So according to this stable genius Senator all you have to do to maintain your privacy is give up your privacy. What could possibly go wrong?
@ Mike — No problem. Thanks.
@ Gene- Totally agree with you. I like a lot of people are just using a VPN when I travel because I don’t want to leave email, bank accounts, loyalty program accounts etc…vulnerable to hacking. Been using a VPN for years and I think that is a big reason my accounts have never been hacked yet even though I’ve been fortunate to travel all over the world at this point and have used a ton of public wifi. I credit VPNs for helping to keep my accounts safe and wouldn’t travel without them. Also want to mention that it has actually been the times I might have accidentally not had my VPN on when overseas that I run into trouble. One time my bank saw I was overseas and froze my account.
Hey, Gary, friend, ole pal, as a website owner and thot leader, what can you tell about us commenters by our IP address, VPN or lack thereof?
Where are the anti-privacy folks to pretend this is to ‘save the children’ or that we shouldn’t care ‘unless we have something to hide’… meanwhile, data brokers harvesting us like those tripods in War of the Worlds. *that sound*
What’s wrong with foot thing? I get that gleff doesn’t like feet (he’s made that abundantly clear) but are you not permitted to put your feet anywhere in your personal space? I regularly sit cross legged with socks (and even bare feet if flying in flip flops). If airlines don’t want you footing, they should put up signs or make announcements. I agree that feet to seat back breaches social norms/decency but it’s 100% lawful IMO. I’m with the FA here.
Shifting gears what a brilliant name for the new uber app: Hackney. A reference to hackney cab. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackney_carriage
Well since we live in what is rapidly becoming an authoritarian police state … the VPN remark doesn’t surprise me a lot …. Especially since a lot of VPN use is related to watching porn in states that seem to want to limit that … you know because watching porn makes Jesus cry
@FacePalm — *Oh hell yeah these are the sins I died for* meme.
If the VPN isn’t being monitored by a government for the government to try to get your info on the sending or receiving side, the government can buy or otherwise try to order your online data from the communication service providers, marketing companies, website/online facilities/services and so on.
You should ask which travel-related blogs and other travel related websites/forums have shared the potentially PII/tracking info from some site users with the government or even other travel-related forums. In some cases, such info has been shared with FlyerTalk admins/moderators, but who am I to say anything about that when FlyerTalk user PMs aren’t really private and their email accounts and smartphones aren’t as secure as they believe them to be with the use of 2FA.
Couple of points: 1) The warning is specific to VPN services offered by foreign-headquartered companies using servers located overseas. In many cases, VPN Services offered by USA-headquartered companies use servers elsewhere in the USA, so this is a non-issue. 2) As noted by Gene, using a VPN to maintain a secure and private connection with your bank and/or brokerage is way more important than shielding communications from the Federal Government (unless of course you really are a criminal). 3) To @FacePalm’s point, we DO NOT live in what is rapidly becoming an authoritarian police state, we HAD BEEN living in such a police state. Thanks to the severly weaponized “Intelligence Branch” (FBI, CIA, NSA, etc), Obama-Biden used Operation Arctic Frost alone to surveil 92 political adversaries, including telephone records, email records, geolocation records, more than 150 interviews, more than 400 subpoenas, and more than 60 search warrants (which included seizures of electronic devices). All of this despite the fact that they knew in advance no crime had been committed.
@ 1990. A joke on Christians on Easter Monday. You are consistent.
@TexasTJ — “we DO NOT live in what is rapidly becoming an authoritarian police state, we HAD BEEN living in such a police state.” Laughable. Either we are now, or we are not, in-general.
@jack the ladd — “Praise be to A…” You gotta admit, that was wild!
Go for it Senator. I’m pretty sure you’re too IT phobic to understand how good vpns work. You’re going to spend millions to survey the wrong person and then get sued.