News and notes from around the interweb:
- Yes, your crossbody counts as a personal item on a plane (but it shouldn’t).
A belt is part of your clothes, not a carry-on item. A belt that you can store items in is still a belt, and part of your clothes. A fanny pack worn across your body, basically a pocket as she says, is part of your clothes too.
Why? Because it doesn’t require overhead bin space (your full-sized carry-on) and it doesn’t require space underneath the seat in front of you (your personal item).
A man can wear cargo pants. Anyone can wear a jacket, even a heavy winter coat, and that doesn’t count against your carry-on allowance. So a crossbody shouldn’t, either.
- American Airlines wants to codeshare on Alaska’s new long haul flights to Europe and Asia but their pilot union says doing so violates the scope clause of their contract – that domestic codeshares are permitted, but not international.
Pilots figure that codesharing on Alaska might trade off with flights their airline would have them fly. Plus, if it’s in the contract it’s negotiating leverage.
American Airlines had planned an international hub at Seattle, moving their long haul flying up from Los Angeles. They were going to do Seattle to Bangalore, Shanghai and London Heathrow. That was the rationale for their amped-up ‘West Coast Alliance’ with Alaska Airlines. But it hasn’t panned out.
- Construction permit denied for new Cleveland Browns stadium becase it would obstruct air traffic (HT: @crucker)
- Refresh of British Airways First Wing starts Monday with work to be done overnights. Somehow it doesn’t seem like 8 years since the space opened.
- Here’s a good reason to actually clean planes – passengers on one flight leaving propoganda for those boarding the next one. Please actually pick up trash from seat pockets between trips!
after @AmericanAir delayed me for more than 12 hours and stonewalling me about compensation for the delay, I finally flew out of dc on flight 5656 to Milwaukee only to see find this in the seat pocket in front of me pic.twitter.com/YFTryHGcb3
— jpiss_esq (@dr_Jpissman) August 16, 2025
- Hotel management company Aimbridge is getting into all-inclusive resorts. Whatever property contracts they win are, in my view, hotels you’ll want to avoid.
Trash is right, Gary.
I’m not at all disagreed about how inappropriate the mesage left in the seat pocket was, but why was American interested in engaging in a DM about this but didn’t even care about the 12 HOUR DELAY !!! This is literally part of their culture now, and it’s sickening.
Your logic is flawed. A fanny pack is not a belt, a belt holds your pants up, a fanny pack does not. It’s a device with a primary purpose of holding other items, i.e. a bag, so it counts as your personal item, just like a purse (it is a man purse, or murse, after all, and I’d never be caught dead wearing one, but whatever)
Put the fanny pack in a bigger bag and use it once you get to the destination, otherwise it’s a third item
I use a waist bag to carry my phones, passport and money. It is part of a belt. I carry nothing in my pockets. I have never been challenged about it despite having a personal item and a carry-on. I have room in my carry-on to stow it, which I often do when going through a TSA security check. The airplane seatbelt goes under it. I suppose I could put all of my things in my money belt or in my pockets but it would just waste time as I replaced everything in my preferred location (the waist bag) before being seated.
I would love a 57.5K mile AA business award ticket from Seattle to London without the BA (BS) surcharges.
@Mantis:
The important part is that fanny packs and other such related items remain on your body. They do not take any cargo space, they do not become missiles in an accident. The only reason to count them as an item is to extort money.
It’s not like a purse that typically gets set down. Away from home the only reason mine comes off is stripping down for the doctor and the like.
Pro tip: Wear your fanny pack around your waist and cover it with your sweatshirt to blend in. Now, you will look like just another out-of-shape, obese, or overweight passenger with a beer belly or a passenger ready to give birth in less than two months.
Those bags, like butt packs, are accessories. Clothing is socks or a shirt. Just because you can put something on over your clothes doesn’t make it clothing.
Astonished at all the consumers who want to side with the airlines who never side with you.
If it stays on your body, I don’t see why that’s an issue; the question should come down to… if you were sitting in a bulkhead, would it have to ‘go up’ or could it stay with you, like a smartphone. Hmm.
@Jack the Ladd — Yup, it’s wild how a vocal minority on here gleefully trash works and their consumers alike. It’s almost like some astroturf on here.
If crossbodies were not treated as the personal item, and although many folks would be realistic as to what constitutes a crossbody, there are folks who would attach something large to themselves and call it a crossbody, and then the airlines would need have rules for what size and weight of crossbody is allowed, and whether it must remain attached to the person during the flight, and then monitor this during the flight, and decide what to do if a person puts his enormous crossbody under his seat or in the overhead bin. A real mess. When folks start getting away with this, then more and more folks will start doing it. Airline staff have enough to police as it is.