News and notes from around the interweb:
- For what it’s worth Bob Crandall thinks everyone’s tax returns should be made public. It disappoints me that 90% of the time I find myself disagreeing with the former American Airlines Chairman’s public opinions.
- US facial recognition will cover 97 percent of departing airline passengers within four years.
US exit controls are one of the saddest developments in travel over the past several years, and they aren’t new to the Trump administration though an increasing emphasis has been placed on their roll out, having been a key part of the executive order that was dubbed the ‘Muslim ban’ which meant these provisions were mostly ignored.
- JFK customs officer has been stealing cash from travelers for at least a year.
Court documents detailed how, between April 2018 and April 2019, Cialone developed a system to rob the travelers. The documents allege that, while conducting searches wearing latex gloves, he would pull $100 bills from women’s purses and hold them in his fist. He would then pull the glove off over his fist, keeping the bill inside, and put it in his pocket. He would later go to the bathroom, where he would put the stolen money into his wallet.
…While being searched after his arrest, court documents say that agents found three latex gloves on Cialone, two of which contained $100 bills.
- The term ‘gate lice’ goes mainstream
- Starbucks Rewards changes:,
[W]hat Starbucks really appreciates is that you spend money with them. With these changes, Starbucks Rewards still expresses that appreciation. But the program is now designed to express that appreciation in a way that makes the company a little more money.
- Passengers evacuate onto wing after spotting flames from engine prior to takeoff on a UTAir 737.
Starbucks coffee machines that give out free coffee (some f them) are only giving out 4oz of coffee and hardly anything. My guess is b/c of the Democrats messing with his machines allegedly b/c he’s running for prez.
For what its worth I stopped participating in their rewards program following the devaluation several years back.
Unfortunately the bean counters somehow overlook customers like me who are barely even customers at all anymore. Starbucks used to be a 3-4x per week thing for me. Now I’m there maybe twice a month, tops.
LOL @ gate lice, gotta remember that one!
“Critics argue that building up a database of millions of people’s photographs is a threat to civil liberties. Once you have the database, it would be easy to share it with other agencies, effectively turning it into a search tool for all law enforcement.”
Critics are probably unaware of how many countries have already been doing this for years, but in a more organized and more systematic fashion. The US still doesn’t have exit border controls and obviously isn’t going to demand its aging airports carve out space for this in order to institute what is normally found in most countries. So instead you’ll see CBP with cameras at departure gates.
The new Starbucks reward program is the biggest rip off on the planet Prior to April 16 I had 10 rewards saved in my Starbucks App (1250 bonus stars) I normally would use rewards to get a salad or a sandwich which required 125 stars usage. After April 16 I discovered that these sane stars can now buy me only 6 salads or sandwiches as under the new rules you need to use 200 stars to obtain a sandwich or a salad This represents a 40 percent devaluation in the new program. I am disgusted and I question whether I will participate in Starbucks’ program in the future. Starbucks in essence screwed loyal customers like me who would participate in bonus stars offers on a weekly basis The way I see it Starbucks owes me 500 bonus stars to compensate me for the 4 rewards that I lost when they changed the program rules last week Alternatively they should have allowed customers who earned bonus stars previously to continue using them under the old rules and imposed the new program rules on stars earned following April 16, 2019 when they initiated their new totally rip off program
Correction to my previous post above. Starbucks would owe me 800 bonus stars to compensate me for the 4 rewards that I lost once they initiated their new rip off I rewards loyalty program. It’s no way to treat loyal customers