News and notes from around the interweb:
- Travel booking websites demand tips now, too though I’m not sure if that’s worse than being asked to tip the Hong Kong-based investment group that owns your hotel?
Tipping hotel booking site ♂️
byu/California12399 inEndTipping - Your regular reminder that you don’t actually want the hotel room that the airline will provide for free during overnight delays caused by weather or crew availability.
@AmericanAir
Flight OGQVZH delayed (airspace), then canceled—no 2nd pilot. Sent to a roach-infested Comfort Inn (photos attached). Outbound flight only had 6 packs of crackers for the whole plane. @AmericanAir, this was unacceptable. I expect compensation. This is the motel. pic.twitter.com/eCSNM2IPyt— deesyk19 (@deesyk19) July 19, 2025
- I think this sign means Seattle has designated its own De Wallen or Red Light District in Amsterdam. They’re making it sound more like the place you’re supposed to go to do The Prostitution, not a place where they crack down on it bigly. It’s “on the main road, less than one mile from terminal, in the ‘Hotel Ghetto'” (HT: Joe)
- Does anyone know why Alaska Airlines flight segments never seem to post properly to American AAdvantage? Someone told me once that Alaska rewrites the PNR every time you change anything (upgrade, seat move, same day change) and on the last writeback it often clears any “foreign” frequent flyer number. I do not know if this is accurate but sure figured they’d have fixed this by now.
- American Airlines has invested more in its Admirals Club food. This coincided with an increase in annual fee for its premium credit card that comes with lounge membership. On the one hand, the food still lags United Clubs and Delta Sky Clubs. On the other hand, there’s far more food than there used to be – and if the food were as good as Delta’s, we might see long lines to get in!
I’m disappointed, though, by their latest offering. They serve a parmesan pasta and these Caramelized Onion Chicken Meatballs. I saw them this week in the Austin and DFW A and B clubs. They have that very specific texture and flavor of cheap meat, that reminds me of the frozen meatballs at Ikea. I hope these do not last. Other recent items have been far better.
- If you pre-order the American Airlines sliders in domestic first class, the flight attendant serving the meal will likely deliver it without any condiments. Some forget, others don’t know they have some. So consider this your reminder to (1) ask and (2) if they say they don’t have any, ask if they wouldn’t mind checking the utensil drawer.
1. Ignore requests for tips where a tip should never be paid
2. In general the hotel AA gives you will be low end. If you can get to an Admirals Club (not all flyers obviously have that option) they often can give you a listing of available hotels so that you can at least avoid the dumps.
3. It’s not just AS flights that are an issue getting credit but AA LPs/miles cash upgrade purchases as well. I’m always going to CK services to get those posted as AAdvantage will always tell me the flight miles have posted, which of course are separate, and figuratively to go f myself.
Thank you, as always, for naming and shaming brands and locations that do bad/’silly’ things. If it’s appropriate, tip real people in cash; that’s always been best.
As for the ‘hotel voucher’ situation, in the USA, for the 1,000th time, oh, how I wish we simply had a compensation scheme for when significant delays and/or cancellations occur under the airlines’ control. Like, with EU/UK 261, or Canada’s APPR, you get cash compensation; then, by all means, stay at the freaking Four Seasons, if you wish; however, at least you ‘get paid,’ when it’s ‘their fault.’ Less of this nickel and diming, or roach/mold-infested whatevers.
Re: Seattle prostitution
SR-99 (state route 99) runs right in front of Sea-Tac airport. The road has various names as it moves north, but it’s a magnet for drug and prostitution traffic.
As you move north through Seattle, SR-99 is known as Aurora Ave, which has long been a place to see ladies of the evening — and morning and afternoon — plying their trade.
Fun fact: friend is a detective with local police agency. He says 40% of human trafficking in the US touches Seattle in some way. Factors include close access to porous border (Canada), sits on major east/west interstate (I-90), sits on major north/south interstate (I-5), major transit-ocean port, home to international airport, proximity to Asia (major source of people being trafficked), and a “permissive political environment”).
Good timing. I’m cancelling my CITI AA Executive card tomorrow.
No value.
@Ex-UA Plat — Well, that’s disturbing.
Speaking of human trafficking, we haven’t forgotten about Epstein (and his partners/clients).
The Citi AA Executive card is worthless but for the Admirals Club membership which no other card offers.
Admirals Clubs have always had crap food, even for purchase.
The value of an Admirals Club is much faster rebooking assistance.
@Erect — Welcome back! Aren’t you forgetting the $10/mo Grubhub credit, $120/calendar year prepaid Avis reimbursement, and the $10/mo after 3x Lyft credits? Oh, and the 20K bonus LPs at 50K and 90K! There is talk that Citi is about to unveil the Strata Elite with 4 AC passes… *yawn*
@1990 – Thank you! Remember, Taiwan is part of China.
Grubhub is useless – DD and UE are where it’s at.
Avis, also useless. Rent from National.
Those Lyft credits aren’t a unique perk of this card. Any Mastercard unlocks that benefit.
Bonus LPs are meh. LPs are very easy to attain. Buy something from AA Shopping, return it, and you’ll keep the LPs.
AC passes are worthless. Most ACs put up a sign saying they don’t accept passes, only memberships.
I saw the AA club meatballs and some pesto rotini briefly last night in DFW but they were shutting it down hard a half hour before closing time. After a series of AA screwups I was looking for a drink and some hot food and barely scored either. Not what I was expecting.
@Erect — Correct! The “Republic of China.” The *true* China. A free, independent country from the dictatorship that is the CCP. You know, like how China Airlines is based in Taiwan.
As to the card and those benefits, yeah, some prefer Coke, others Pepsi; but, come on, as far as all the delivery services, they’re practically the same, especially when you’re ordering from the same place and practically using the same drivers/guys on bicycles. You are still in NYC, aren’t you? Flushing? If so, you should know better. I wouldn’t recommend your LP strategy; that’s a great way to get banned, lose all your miles, etc. As far as lounge passes getting denied, I think you’re thinking of United Clubs, but ok, maybe, haven’t run into that. Wait, didn’t you pretend to make $100 million on here a while back (sorry, were you pretending to be @Un/Unintimidated then)?
@ 1990 — IROPS should be utilized as an opportunity to gain Qualifying Nights. Stay where you want and then ask the airline to pay. They might refuse, but if you have a qualification target you are planning to meet, the actual cost of the hotel stay may be near zero anyway.
@ 1990 — Just say no to tipping. Went to Sonic a few days ago, and the ordering machine asked for a tip. Zero was only an option if you didn’t enter anything, but then the machine begged for a tip for several minutes while we waited. I said loudly to my SO, “Don’t tip. It’s a scam! They should pay their workers…” Then, I realized the human on the other end (the one possibly preparing our food) likely heard every word. Yikes!
@Gene — At that rate, you’ll be Titanium/Diamond/whatever in no time! And, oof, maybe skip that meal. I try to be as nice as possible to keep spit out of my PDBs, too.
@ 1990 — Fortunately the food wasn’t for me. Never had food from Sonic. Never plan to either.
Next April Fools, Gary should enable a tipping function under each post he writes
@Gene @1990 — Might make whoever ate the meal “gotta go fast”
It looks like it is cabs or Ubers in Seattle.