News and notes from around the interweb:

• Marriott free night certificates can be combined with cash for upgraded rooms

• United’s test of faster business class meal service on short transatlantics included reducing dessert choice, eliminating the cheese course, and offering only a cold breakfast.

  United, however, has restored cheese and hot breakfast to business class on affected flights. Getting to sleep faster is a great idea, serving only cold breakfast shouldn’t really help with that.

  

• The CitiBusiness ThankYou card that you have to apply in-branch for

• Two ex-Singapore Airlines A380s have found anew home in the scrapyards they’re only 12 years old but nobody wants them. No doubt they’re due for significant maintenance investment, and ongoing operating costs themselves would be high.

• The British Airways AARP discount doesn’t appear to be working right. British Airways tells me though that it’ll be back, that “It’s a system error. It’s being worked on now.”

  

• Survey: Passengers will avoid flying the 737 MAX for a year or more. Warren Buffett, however, was apparently not included in the survey. I’m not sure most customers understand what plane they’re on when booking tickets, or that this is going to make people invest in that level of understanding, at least after a couple of weeks.

• Realistic tours of Italy (HT: JohnnyJet)